To continue on this long going discussion, not in particulair on this forum, but also with our government. The HBO Nurse is educated to standards of different roles. These five roles include: coach and designer. Meaning that the HBO nurse is being taught to improve not only health care of their patients, but also with their colleagues and even up to national work groups in charge of specific nursing-care protocols.
With the MBO nurse the primary focus is aimed on providing health care. In hospital, nursing homes, eldery homes, etc. These MBO nurses often meet up the same job descriptions as for the HBO nurse. So in theory, that would mean that they both get the same salary, and both are required to perform the same tasks. The only difference I can imagine is that the HBO nurse is capable (because she is educated to it) to see the larger picture. Where the MBO nurse did not have this in their training/school.
So yes. Even for us in The Netherlands (and for me in the last year of my nursing study) it is hard to define the differences between one and another.
And discussions such as "HBO nurses are better specialised nurses in ex. ambulance, ER, etc." are based on personal opinions. There has indeed been some research to the quality of care between MBO and HBO nurses, but this leaves, again, many space for free interpetation.
My two cents.
Bryan,
I think you have hit the nail on the head here. The fifth hbo nursing competency, coach and innovator, is what sets it apart from mbo. I have been mentoring hbo students for the past 10 years and have always been impressed by their depth of knowledge when it comes to bringing about change. We are finally shifting to a model where nursing is becoming increasingly evidence based. Something which the Netherlands is quite late in doing, BTW. When one looks at the US (and the UK, to an extent), you'd be hard pushed to find an RN without a Bachelor's degree. Certainly not in the hospital setting. My personal opinion about the proposed changes for level 4 is that it isn't necessarily a bad thing. There will still be a role for level 4 in acute care and will just be more clearly defined in the future than is the case now.
It intrigues me, BTW, to see that you refer to nurses in the female form.. The last time I checked we were both male...
CM
PS - I assume that a topper like you will continue into hbo!
