Editorial: nursing education: developments in the UK

[Extract] There has been a breathrough in nursing education in the UK. The regulatory body for nursing, the NMC (Nursing & Midwifery Council 2008), has for the first time in the history of the UK nursing agreed that 'The minimum academic award for pre-registration nursing programmes will be degree'. The significance of the breakthrough is twofold: first, its novelty and, second, this brings the UK into line with nursing in much of the developed world. UK academics who visit other countries will be able, at least in terms of the education of nurses for the national register, to hold their heads high at last