Sorry, but that's a patronising load of old cobblers. See above posting by Spleen Cringe who puts it better than I could.

Ed the folkie, you obviously don't recognize irony.

Marion, I'm sorry that two year program you were in seemed so inadequate. I had the impression you were in a four-year program. At the university where I work there is a four-year nursing degree BS and a MS and Ph.D. offered, all in nursing. Yes, there is such a thing as a doctor of nursing. A nurse isn't like a lesser trained doctor, a nurse is trained in many similar ways, but doesn't branch as far into some of the specialties.

I often deal with the nurse practitioner at the doctor's office, when the doctor is booked but my complaint is something along the lines that the nursing folk are perfectly equipped to handle and prescribe for, if necessary. Last time I was in for a poison ivy rash, for example.

SRS