190319-N-IY469-042 – Lt. Cmdr. Erica Diamond, a Registered

190319-N-IY469-042 – Lt. Cmdr. Erica Diamond, a Registered Nurse Certified in Inpatient Obstetrics, talked to NMCP nurses about the importance of certifications during the Certified Nurses Day event on March 19. “Right now there’s a huge push to elevate our profession to be equivalent to that of a terminal degree, like lawyers and doctors,” Diamond said. “They want nurses to no longer have the bare minimum of our associate’s degree. They want our associate’s nurses to have bachelor’s and our bachelor’s nurses to start coming in with their master’s, and they ultimately want us to have our doctorate degree because they want us working at the highest capacity of our scope of practice.”