Nurses, pharmacists take on new roles

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

nurses, pharmacists take on new rolesnurses possess a high degree of training and skill, and an increasingly strained u.s. healthcare system is gradually making better use of their talents. according to u.s. news & world report, the nation's 2 million-plus nurses are handling tasks once thought to be the exclusive domain of doctors, such as "administering chemotherapy and running their own primary-care practices."

wall street journal (subscription required), jan. 31, 2005

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[candi361]

I read last week's issue of U.S. News & World Report and it had this story, as well as a couple of other great articles, about the growing importance of the roles of nursing professionals. The only scary thing to me was the idea that, according to one of the stories, a doctorate degree may be required by the year 2015 for advanced practice nurses in order to do the work that is done now with a Masters (NPs, CNMs, etc.). It seems to me that with the nursing shortage, why make it that much harder to get into the field? Especially when you read these articles and realize that nurses are fast becoming the new faces of quality healthcare in many respects. Anyway, that's just MHO, I'm new to all this. But the magazine is really worth picking up!. For anyone interested, here are direct links to the articles:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050131/health/31nurses.htm

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050131/health/31nurses.b.htm