Re: Anyone heard anything about no more masters degrees?
The four advanced practice roles are NP (nurse practitioner), CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist), CNS (clinical nurse specialist), and CNM (certified nurse midwife). There are lots of other master's specializations in nursing, also -- education, administration/management, clinical nurse leader (CNL), informatics, probably lots of others I can't think of at the moment -- but those are not considered
advanced (clinical) practice, and no one is talking about making them doctoral degrees.
The four AP roles currently require an MSN as the minimum educational preparation (that's been the case for many years now).
DNP programs are certainly springing up all over the place like mushrooms after a spring rain. Many advanced practice MSN programs are currently transitioning into DNP programs. However, As LisaMSN notes, there are groups within nursing that have been
proposing that the BSN become the minimum entry into nursing for at least thirty years now, and we're no closer to
that happening than we were thirty years ago. In order for this new DNP-for-advanced-practice thing to become a requirement instead of a proposal, a whole lot of people (organizations) who don't seem particularly enthusiastic about the idea would have to buy into it.
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