I am a senior in High School and I am doing my Graduation Project/Science Fair on Nursing. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

Yes - because Nurses will need to have a degree in order to maintain their professionalism and credibility with the other health care professionals. Otherwise, we will continue to remain "slaves" to other health care disciplines. Nurses have subsidized the health care system long enough. However, I don't really feel that the University setting is where nurses learn to be nurses. That is done in a hospital setting. In the hospital I retired from there was a six month preceptorship before a patient assignment was given to a new nurse. This was necessary because of the acuity of the patients at that particular hospital. You just can't teach intuition and the nursing experience through class/book learning.