| Summary: | This study is about the professionalization of nursing. Nursing leaders at the national level and in New Brunswick initiated a new education policy requiring the baccalaureate degree as entry to practice. The new education policy would eliminate the diploma programs which are two to three years in length in favour of the baccalaureate degree which is four years in length. This study demonstrates that the case of upgrading nurse education was a carefully planned event requiring the acceptance of groups within nursing and the government, and was not part of the occupation's natural evolution. === Publicly, nursing leaders argued that the increase in work complexity necessitates a more qualified and educated workforce. Less publicized reasons for the change were the desire to be perceived as a profession, the hope for more respect from other occupations, increased autonomy, and increased financial rewards. There was, as well, the desire to expand nursing tasks which would address the belief that traditional, valued nursing tasks were being taken on by other health care workers. === Four competing theoretical perspectives were used to interpret the education change in nursing: functionalist, human capital theory, the interactionist perspective, and conflict theory. The findings from this study support the explanatory power of both the interactionist perspective and conflict theory. The interactionist perspective, focusing on intra-occupational processes, suggests that the conflict between the professional nursing association in New Brunswick, who initiated the education policy change, and the provincial nursing union, who vehemently opposed the policy change, stems partially from differences in organizational memberships, beliefs about nursing roles and broader occupational goals. Conflict theory (in particular closure theory), describes how occupations pursuing a 'professional project' may define membership in such a way to exclude other subordinate groups (e.g. the use of credentials). Thus, the baccalaureate entry to practice may be interpreted as an exclusionary strategy which will close off opportunities to diploma nurses in an attempt to enhance nursing's status. In order to achieve this goal, nursing leaders needed the support of the provincial government.
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