ALL nurses will need to be educated to degree level from 2013, the Government has announced.
At present, nurses receive a diploma after two or three years of training but they will now have to complete three or four years to obtain a degree.
The move is as a result of changes in recent years to the way nurses work, including handling more advanced levels of practice, prescribing and working in specialist disease areas, such as diabetes.
Nursing courses will match up to new a set of standards set out by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and will include more practical experience outside of hospitals.
Current training in-volves a combination of theoretical and practi-cal work but the new standards, which are open to consultation, will include a focus on students gaining expe-rience in community health teams.
Trainees will also shadow school health nurses and district nurses who work with people in their own homes.
