Former Australian arts minister, Ros Bates, is facing criticism (and potential parliamentary censure) for claiming to be a Registered Nurse, when she had in fact allowed her license to laps.
It’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot. Bates is probably right that, in the context of parliamentary debate (rather than, say, in the context of being hired at a hospital), critics are “nit-picking” when the point to the difference between being a qualified nurse and being a registered nurse.
But the story is a good reminder of the social privilege that licensure implies. Compare: I’m a philosopher by training (that’s what my PhD is in). But no one ever gets in trouble for “falsely” claiming to be a philosopher!
