The nurses may get awarded with advanced degrees that would enable them to carry out practice without the surveillance of a doctor, as revealed by a report.

The report has been brought out by the Institute of Medicine and was financed by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It recommends that nurses should be vested with authorities to offer independent health care in America. This move is opposed by the doctors over safety issues.

It urges State and the Federal Government to eliminate blockades like regulatory and institutional hindrances and scope of practice that guides what services nurses can provide with a master's degree.

The issue has been studied for two years by a committee on the future of nursing that comprises nurses, doctors, health care business leaders and academics. A meeting will be held next month by the panel to discuss various means for the implementation of the report’s recommendations.

Donna Shalala, Chair of the Institute of Medicine's committee said, "We cannot get significant improvements in the quality of health care unless nurses are front and center in the health care system - in leadership, in education and training, and in the design of the new health care system".