Anybody read todays Sunday Times? Their view of nurses:
1. We are slags - yes, they actually used that word to describe how we look.
2. We all earn over £30,000 a year.
3. We don't actually do any nursing (especially cleaning), we just run around pretending to be junior doctors.
4. We never wash our hands.
5. We do not care what happens to our patients, and can't be bothered to do anything at all.
I had expected to read a well researched report when I started to read the atricle, but as usual whoever wrote it didn't bother to do any reasearch at all.
Yes, it's bash the nurse week again - and the season of sweeping generalisations! However, nurses will now see what the public really think of them, and it's not the warm positive image they thought. A lot of the public think even £19000 a year is a lot, and that's because they only earn £12000. Hmmm. Food for thought.
I see that the nursing profession has a huge job to get back the place they used to hold in the British affection, and for some hospitals that means getting their act together and delivering real quality!
i wonder what some of the many retired Nurses who wax lyrical on how things were done in their day would cope with the acuity of modern Inpatient care...
I'm one of those "older" nurses you refer to (although I'm not yet retired...my choice) I started my nursing career almost 30 years ago. Yes, things were done very differently in my day and I "cope" very well, thank you, with the acuity of modern inpatient care.
Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
I'm one of those "older" nurses you refer to (although I'm not yet retired...my choice) I started my nursing career almost 30 years ago. Yes, things were done very differently in my day and I "cope" very well, thank you, with the acuity of modern inpatient care.
Just wondering what your point is?
you defeat your arguement here if you r arguement was to try and attempt to put down a HE educated and prepared fro practice Nurse rather than a traditional trained one ...
How - by still being in practice and noting that things are very different ...
you have lived and worked through some remarkable changes in terms of acuity and reduction in length of stay, some of those who wax lyrical in the press or other media do not have current / recent clinicla experience ...
A while ago i looked after a lady who had been 'Nursing Officer' in the hospital i work for (i.e. a divisional Nurse manager) and she remarked that in terms of acuity the acuity level today ( and consequently the input required ) was much much more than when she had retired and even then the acuity levels when she retired compared to when she started were an order of magnitude greater ..
How - by still being in practice and noting that things are very different ... you have lived and worked through some remarkable changes in terms of acuity and reduction in length of stay, some of those who wax lyrical in the press or other media do not have current / recent clinicla experience .....
Absoutly, Zibby was not implying that all 'older' nurses are unable to cope with todays stresses and workload and in fact, I don't think anyone here is implying that. Far from it as anyone, young or old, who works in the present NHS understands that things today are very different from what they were even 5 years ago and that alot that is wrong with the NHS stems from illadvised goverment policies, budget restrictions and ineffectual management(plus much more!) and not just that nurse training has changed. The comments I am fed up with seeing are from nurse who have retired many moons ago and have no idea what it is to work in a hospital in 2007. It seems that these nurses lost their empathy when they handed in their nursing hats and cloaks. These are the nurses that I think Zibby was referring too.
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
I have been nursing over 21 years and have seen many changes with both demand and support. I don't think it is as much as not being able to cope but lack of support and staff to cope. Have also seen students try to get out of doing ward work and even newly qualified staff nurses not know how to do simple things like manual bp. Demand on the NHS has gone up by both the public and also the government and as usual it is the nurses that s the fall guy not management when things fail
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
ward work or HCA work????
met a few people who moan aobut that but looking at how they work they are never quick off the mark to answer to do 'ward work'
and whose fault is that?
the RNs who have mentored them on placement and failed to assess their skills properly ...
Ward work but also if RN or HCA/Aux needs a hand with looking after a patient have seen students disappear
Maybe RN is at fault for not failing them but also depends on what is required in the handbook. Many a time I was questioned by students to why I was not using the electronic equipment when I did manual BP's I also asked them to do manual bp lots of times before I would sign them off not just standard 1 or 2 times
Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
I know nothing of the UK system. Do you have a professional representative organisation that can answer on behalf of UK nurses to slanderous comments such as these? Perhaps someone should put these journalists into a hospital for a day. Oh...would they get their hands dirty? I mean, they have a degree after all...funny, just like us!
Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..
i wonder what some of the many retired Nurses who wax lyrical on how things were done in their day would cope with the acuity of modern Inpatient care...
Well I'm not quite retired but the answer would be we would have coped!!By the beginning of third year you were pretty much expected to cope with anything.You were often left in charge of wards,especially on night duty,even receiving wards with maybe a "floating" staff nurse who might "float"by with a bit of luck!Fair enough we were not trained to take bloods,initiate IV's etc but the responsibilities were huge compared to students now.You finished your training,got your reg.and the next day you were Staff Nurse on a ward.With a bit of luck the Sister or more experienced Staffies would look after you but generally you were expected to know your stuff and get on with it.
That worked because from the word get-go you were part of the team. By the time you got to the 3rd year you were used to the way things ran because you'd been in the same hospital - bar little trips out for psychiatry & community- for the whole of your training. I kinda posted this on the other similar thread so I won't go on!
Specializes in midwifery, gen surgical, community.
Agree with RGN 1. We stayed in the same hospital for most of our training and by the time we had qualified, had effectively been working as staffies for the last 6 months of our training.
I have known newly qualified nurses now thrown in at the deep end, expected to care for 16 acutely ill patients. Some of these girls/boys have only ever worked on maybe one or two hospital wards during their training. It is not fair on them or on their patients.
:o:o
Fonenurse
493 Posts
Yes, it's bash the nurse week again - and the season of sweeping generalisations! However, nurses will now see what the public really think of them, and it's not the warm positive image they thought. A lot of the public think even £19000 a year is a lot, and that's because they only earn £12000. Hmmm. Food for thought.
I see that the nursing profession has a huge job to get back the place they used to hold in the British affection, and for some hospitals that means getting their act together and delivering real quality!