The first position paper calling for baccalaureate degree as the minimum requirement for entry into professional nursing was released in 1965 by the American Nurses Association. This stimulates an ongoing frustrating debate among nurses. The Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing is the largest healthcare profession with 2.5 million jobs and is projected to generate 587,000 more jobs between 2006-2016. Despite strength in numbers nurses are the least educated of all the interdisciplinary healthcare team members with whom they collaborate.
