Academic levels in nursing

Abstract

With the developments of new academic courses in nursing comes the need for a debate about educational levels. This paper offers a discussion of some of the issues involved in such a debate and draws upon data collected from professors of nursing in the United Kingdom, masters students in a Dutch college and from the American literature on the topic. The need to be able to distinguish between diploma, bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees is highlighted and various suggestions about how such distinctions may be made are offered.