Letter to the Guardian...
Sir, So it seems that the nurses are to blame for the deaths at
Mid-Staffs according to the Health Secretary: "Nurses
must spend a year on basic care" - Guardian 26th March.
Conveniently targeting a lower paid group while ignoring the real
causes of the tragedy, i.e. the ridiculous race to turn hospitals
into Foundation Trusts and the failure of the hospital Board and
commissioners to recognise the disaster, is scapegoating at its
worst.
Of course nurses need to ensure that compassion runs central to
their practice and they need not to be above the basic skills of
care but making them spend a further year in training won't achieve
that; ensuring that wards are properly staffed and that health care
focuses on care not profit, will.
Stuart Jeffery
Green Party Health Spokesperson and Registered Nurse
Development House
56-64 Leonard Street
London
EC2A 4LT
Green Party campaigner in Kent. Also a nurse, academic, former manager, writer, Druid, husband and father...
1 comment:
I agree with much of what you say but the problem is deep and both historical and cultural.
We live in a society where qualifications and knowledge is prized above wisdom, experience, emotional intelligence and common sense not to mention compassion.
Project 2000 was always aimed to 'upgrade' the profession by falling into line with the cultural supremacy of the intellect. Thus nurses can spend hours at the Nursing Station on paperwork rather than practising their true craft at the bedside
Care, real care is therapeutic in its own right but this potential has never been recognised. Yet those Victorian mothers often nursed their children back to health without the advantages of modern medicine. How so?
The snobbery associate with intellectual acumen is misplaced and until the value of care is recognised and paid for accordingly, sadly sick people will continue to be poorly served.
Maggie - Retired Nurse
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