As an old git who has worked 25 years in the job I feel qualified to comment. This is a knee jerk poorly thought out proposal. The problems are not with nurse training or lack of compassion and knowing one's place, but the following:
Complexity and breadth of role has increased dramatically and nursing has lost it's identity.
The role of the nurse over the past few decades has changed enormously. it is now in many/most areas a highly skilled technical job and these tasks are hugely time consuming. Junior doctor hours are much less and as a consequence they are less experienced and nursing takes up the slack in terms of both tasks and assessing/monitoring/treating acutely unwell patients. As well as being a technician and junior doctor nurses are expected to do a myriad of other jobs- complex social and psychological care, delivering complex information and education to patients and carers, then the traditional nursing tasks of washing, dressings, making beds, feeding. They are made to complete overly complex paperwork, answer the ward phones, all the while being continually interrupted by relatives, physios, doctors, pharmacists, support staff, etc. They are also expected (in their own time) to undertake masters degrees to progress to any senior grade, while other non nursing staff can get to that pay grade without comparable qualifications.
Patients are sicker and staffing ratios are the same
Our parent's generation spent 10 days in hospital following a normal uncomplicated childbirth. This would mean caring for patients who were completely well. Nowadays these women are discharged the same day. This practice is reflected everywhere. The only people allowed to be in hospital are really, truely unwell and dependent. But staffing levels are no better than when I qualified.
Nurses are lowest profession in the hospital pecking order
If you nurse in a hospital you are basically treated as a slave to be ordered around, by managers, corporate nursing, medical staff, other professions, patients and relatives. Nurses are under represented at every senior level and at best there are token representatives on boards who haven't nursed for 20 years and are chosen as they won't challenge the agenda. Nurses who speak out about poor standards find their words are dismissed and then they are branded troublemakers and treated terribly. Hence the type of situation that developed at Stafford. I can recall hundreds of episodes in my high performing trust alone where nurses spoke out and their concerns were trivialised then they were demonised. Corporate nursing also makes it very difficult for nurses to progress, putting academic obstacles in the way of progression without the support to achieve them, not supporting job plans which might release nurses to research, supporting the concept that the nurse can be and do everything for patients with no additional resources in place.
I would not recommend nursing to my daughter or anyone who asked me and yet i loved the job when I started. There are much easier careers available for better money and satisfaction. Do not underestimate the ability to go home and sleep peacefully. Mine is continually interrupted by feeling one might have made an error costing me my job and more.