Only a few nurses mentioned more pay as a way to improve the professional development of nursing. This underlines the commitment of nurses to their patients. Unless pay is sufficiently attractive to bring enough nurses into practice, it will never be possible to release nurses for CE, however well funded that CE may be. This study suggests that nurses who are graduate or undergraduate nurse practitioners see the UKCC as the main barrier to their professional development. Other nurses are more concerned about lack of resources and working relationships with management and other professional colleagues, especially GPs.
Education figures prominently for both groups but in different ways.
For NPs it is about having national standards and a recognised qualification and title at degree level, while other nurses feel that better access to education holds the key to professional development. These findings suggest some positive ways forward for nursing, not all of which involve spending the Chancellor's new found largesse. The UKCC can embrace the NP movement and recognise the NP qualification at no expense. Changing the attitudes of managers, doctors and some nurses is not easy, but need not necessarily cost great sums of money. Nurse Practitioner Evaluation Report.