Re: “Keep nursing on the federal list of professional degrees” (Dec. 2, Opinion):
As Justin Gill, DNP, APRN, RN, president of the Washington State Nurses Affiliation, so eloquently acknowledged, “For the sake of Washington’s sufferers, households and future workforce, the schooling division should embody nursing within the professional-degree designation …” earlier than the U.S. Division of Schooling’s proposed rule is finalized.
Throughout my profession, I labored carefully with graduate-prepared registered nurses in outpatient, inpatient hospital and emergency transport settings. They’re the spine of the U.S. well being care system. The schooling required is gigantic and costly. Limiting federal mortgage entry for these superior observe applications will worsen the entry to those applications and subsequently the provision of well being care providers. Moreover, it’s an insult to the nursing occupation, particularly after our expertise counting on them so closely in the course of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to all RNs and to Justin Gill for alerting us to this federal proposed rule change.
Toni Lengthy, Seattle
