A nurse will perform your operation today: how nursing roles are changing

As part of my studies, I recently read an article that discussed the public image of nursing and the perceptions people have about what a nurse's job involves (ten Hoeve et al, 2014). This public perception often does not reflect the professionalism, skill and autonomy of the profession. Nurses' skills and attributes are set to increase with the latest standards for nurses published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018).

Annexe B of the standards sets out the procedures in which nurses must be competent. Examples include chest auscultation, cannulation and electrocardiogram tracing (NMC, 2018). A few years ago, many of these procedures would have been undertaken only by advanced nurse practitioners, specialist nurses and critical care nurses and, before then, they would have been the sole province of doctors.

The NMC standards are for all nurses and are starting to be incorporated into pre-registration nursing programmes, which is great news for the profession and, hopefully, its public image, putting to rest the idea that nurses are doctors' handmaidens (ten Hoeve et al, 2014).