The standard of nursing in the National Health Service may be putting patients’ lives at risk, two professors have warned.
Professor Linda Shields, from the University of Hull and Professor Roger Watson, from the University of Sheffield, have said that American research has revealed that death rates were lower in hospitals where nurses have degrees.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine says: “The consequences of poor education and mistakes are deaths, so the imperative to educate nurses to the highest standard is mandatory.”
While nurses in many other countries need a degree, only four percent of British nurses are graduates, they say.
Sara Lucas, a third year Cardiff nursing student, said:
“I have always found there to be a high standard of nursing regardless of whether nurses have been educated to diploma or degree standard.
“I have always been really impressed with my mentor’s and other nursing staff’s standard of knowledge and expertise.”
