Once, I was proud and happy to be one. I loved my job, was well trained (without a degree - imagine!), knew how to keep my patients comfortable, could resuscitate without any problems long before I qualified, knew when a patient was about to "go off", and as a ward sister, was happy to wipe bottoms or do anything else that was needed. Nursing was about looking after sick people.
And now the huge problem with Stafford Hospital. A doctor interviewed on Radio 4 put it succinctly: "once, nurses did their job because they cared. Now they take it up to get a degree". The goverment wants, among other things, to appoint a "Senor Inspector of Hospitals. No, no, NO! Start by getting the right candidates - there are plenty of young people who would make execellent nurses, but don't have the academic qualifications to reach degree level. I know there are good nurses out there - I've met them - but there are some truly appalling ones, too. How can anyone with an ounce of humanity leave patients to die in their own filth, or pass by a patient who is thirsty or in pain? As I've said on my other (much-neglected) blog The Real Nurse Campaign, a good start would be to bring back the SENs; practical nurses with sound knowledge who want to look after people. To continue to throw money at the problem is sheer madness.
What do you think?
