Christine Beasley, the chief nursing officer, has welcomed a government initiative which will mean al nurses in England will need to have degrees.

She told the programme that the past few years have seen treatment and drugs become increasingly complex. And she told the programme that "not only do nurses need to care and have compassion but they also need to have the real ability to think to make critical decisions and have technical skills."

But Gail Adams, head of nursing at the the trade union Unison, said that she was concerned to ensure that the right emphasis was placed on the care and compassion given by nurses and not solely on their academic ability.

And she added that nurses she had spoken to were worried that the changes might be "a drive to move nursing towards the supervisors of care and more junior staff coming in to undertake the more basic bedside care".

The new standards, supported by NHS managers and the nursing union, will be introduced in England in 2013.