The curse of the CATalytic converter

Addresses the transfer of nurse education from schools of nursing, previously located within health authorities and, more recently, hospital and/or community trusts, to institutions of higher education. The pressures this has produced for both providers and participants in this relatively new educational initiative have had a direct effect on the levels of stress and anxiety that students feel both in their initial professional qualification programmes and in continuing their personal and academic development subsequently. There is a paucity of research into this area of stress and student Angst as a result of the new educational thrust. Suggests that the evidence from student evaluations has not been collated adequately and that the result is a burgeoning of anecdotal evidence which is being ignored by nursing's professional body. Higher education has encouraged and influenced an almost exponential growth in programmes of study, which the nursing profession has used to force its singular aim to create a degree-based profession.