Nurses will be recognized as graduates after fifteen years

BarcelonaIn the healthcare sector, there are several professional complaints that are labeled as historical because no government has been able to unblock them, and they have become entrenched. Nurses, for example, They have been asking for years to be recognized as medical staff, since the unification of European university education under the Bologna Plan 15 years ago, graduates leave university with a degree, like doctors, and not with diplomas, as had been the case until then. However, in Spain, for access to degrees and economic advancement, the categories that responded to this difference are still maintained: A1, the equivalent of a bachelor's degree, includes only medical personnel, while A2, the diploma, extends to nurses and other professional roles. However, this grievance is about to be corrected.

The Ministry of Health and unions are negotiating new regulations on the working conditions of healthcare professionals, as they have not been updated for 22 years. This is the preliminary draft of the framework statute for the healthcare sector, which should establish the new regulatory framework for the careers of thousands of healthcare workers in the State. According to the General Nursing Council (CGE), the draft they are working with includes the professional reclassification they have been demanding for years, which is why they are "happy and satisfied."

Thus, with the new text of the framework statute, levels A1 and A2, which were previously occupied by nurses and which represented a reduction of between "300 and 400 euros compared to other professions with the same training," disappear. The CGE maintains that the professions will be divided into level 6 for all graduates; level 7, for professionals with master's degrees and specialties; and level 8, which is reserved for doctors. "We agree with this proposal," said Diego Ayuso, secretary general of the CGE, in a press conference.

Prescriptions for medications

The Spanish government has already approved the draft law on medicines, which aims to reform a system that has remained virtually unchanged since the 1990s. The objective of the future law is to "modernize" the drug pricing system, promote generic treatments, and streamline the prescription of medications. Among other measures, they highlight the need to enable nurses and physical therapists toThey can also prescribe drugs.

However, it's still unclear which drugs they'll be able to prescribe; they'll have to conform to the new "competences," which are yet to be defined. A year ago, the Spanish government decided to expand nurses' powers so they could prescribe more medications, such as smoking cessation drugs, thus giving them more responsibility.