To the Editors:

I am responding to your editorial “Doctor of Nursing Practice—MRI or Total Body Scan,” (July 2005: 278–281). I totally agree with your views. Nursing does not need, nor will it benefit from, yet another alphabet soup of credentials that have no real meaning. Organized nursing fails to recognize that we are not a profession, but a vocational trade group. No entity or group where the greatest percentage of members have less than a professional degree is accepted as a profession. Nearly 65% of nurses still have only a diploma certificate or a junior college degree. In all other junior college programs, graduates are an assistant to the professional (eg, physical therapy assistant, dental assistant, computer science assistant). It is well known that nurses are the least educated healthcare provider today. As you correctly point out, all other disciplines have moved on to bachelor’s, master’s, or even doctorate...

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