Submitted by fredlave, Sep 29, 2008 17:31

Salome is correct. The diploma nursing schools were the backbone of American nursing. Most hospitals had one and drew on their graduates to fill their nursing needs. These schools were affordable and accessible to young women (and men) from all socioeconomic groups and were the path into the profession for thousands. I interned at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital (now the NY Methodist Hospital) in the sixties before their school was closed. The students were well trained by graduation and ready to work from day one. Today, the four year university "degree" programs are expensive and overly long. Cost and length of training exclude many aspirants and, in their place, we are forced to "import" nurses from third world countries with dubious training and language skills. The American Nurses Association did this to "improve" the profession. All they did was create an artificial shortage so that patients have to settle for uncertainty when hospitalized.

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