The training of Nurses

[Daven]

Some nurses may need a higher qualification if their job is highly technical, but a degree excludes an awful lot of people who have exactly the right caring attitude to do the job but no degree.

 

Yes, they can become an auxiliary or careworker but they work just as hard for peanuts.

 

In my opinion there should be two routes into nursing that are both equally well regarded and pay the same: The more technical degree route, and a more patient focused, on the job training route open to people without high qualifications but who have to pass a rigorous interview and assessment period.

 

Both types of nurse should be allowed to progress within the profession.

Support Workers DO work just as hard as qualified nurses - the difference is the level of responsibility. A qualified nurse has professional responsibilty for all patients in her care and also for the actions of Support Workers working with her.

I agree, there should be a less academic entry into nursing - it is not necessary to have a degree to be a good nurse - my opinion.

[sandie]

What's the point in the thread if you're not having a go at Nurses? It sounds like you're suggesting Nurses don't care for their patients, which us utter crap.

 

I also think you've made up the bit about Nurses thinking bed pans etc are beneath them.

 

You do not have a clue I am not having a go at Nurses, just the way they are now bieng trained. So wind your neck in.

[Harleyman]

My daughter-in-law did four years in nursing school to become a Registered Nurse and earn a Bachelors degree. She also during that time had extensive training at hospitals as part of the course'

Next to a doctor she has all the responsibility for caring for the patients in her sector during a shift and has to supervise nurses with only a basic degree in nursing so why should she have to do the menial jobs?

 

I dont know about the UK but Registered Nurses are supervisors of the lesser qualified nurses in my part of the world.

[LadOnDole]

W wiping bottoms is beneath them

 

 

 

To be fair, I can see why people would not want to wipe someone elses bottom.

 

YUK

[bagger]

My daughter-in-law did four years in nursing school to become a Registered Nurse and earn a Bachelors degree. She also during that time had extensive training at hospitals as part of the course'

Next to a doctor she has all the responsibility for caring for the patients in her sector during a shift and has to supervise nurses with only a basic degree in nursing so why should she have to do the menial jobs?

 

I dont know about the UK but Registered Nurses are supervisors of the lesser qualified nurses in my part of the world.

Menial jobs? Is helping a patient find comfort in their beds a menial task? Is reassuring a patient who is upset at having to use a bedpan for the first time a menial job? Is sitting and listening to patients who are terrified of what they face in hospital a menial task. I don't think so. I know of many nurses who would prefer the job of support worker because that's where most of the hands on care is. We now do many of the jobs that nurses used to do before they were given all the endless paperwork that they have to complete each shift. As a support worker there aren't that many tasks that separate us from nurses but thankfully we don't have the responsibility (finger of blame) that the nurses have.

[bagger]

To be fair, I can see why people would not want to wipe someone elses bottom.

 

YUK

 

Well thankfully there are people out there who wipe other people's bottoms, and I'm one of them!

So if ever you're on 'my' ward......

[dave_dave]

You do not have a clue I am not having a go at Nurses, just the way they are now bieng trained. So wind your neck in.

 

So you just have a problem with people being educated?

[Plain Talker]

To be fair, I can see why people would not want to wipe someone elses bottom.

 

YUK

 

You have simply GOT to be trolling us, L-O-D

 

So, tell me, how do the bottoms get wiped of the people who are, perhaps in hospital, paralysed? or those who are too ill, (such as those in the intensive care unit? how about the people who have "Mental Handicaps" (as it was called back in my day) and are incapable of bathing and cleansing their own "bits"?

 

What would happen if it were your dear parent or grandparent being left in their own filth, uncared-for? I bet you'd be the first out from under the bridge and going squeaking to the TV news or the Star about how shockingly they were treated.

 

Well thankfully there are people out there who wipe other people's bottoms, and I'm one of them!

So if ever you're on 'my' ward......

 

Speaking as someone who nursed those with Learning Difficulties, and on a Stroke Rehab ward, as well as on Geriatric/ Psycho-Geriatric wards, I have cleaned more tiddly and poohed-up bottoms than you could shake a stick at.

 

It's not the most pleasant task in the world, granted, but IMO, it's better to do this supposedly "menial" task, and leave a patient clean, hygienic and comfortable, by cleansing their dirty bottoms, than to leave them in an undignified mess, with the risk of the pooh causing sores, and tissue breakdown.

[Harleyman]

Menial jobs? Is helping a patient find comfort in their beds a menial task? Is reassuring a patient who is upset at having to use a bedpan for the first time a menial job? Is sitting and listening to patients who are terrified of what they face in hospital a menial task. I don't think so. I know of many nurses who would prefer the job of support worker because that's where most of the hands on care is. We now do many of the jobs that nurses used to do before they were given all the endless paperwork that they have to complete each shift. As a support worker there aren't that many tasks that separate us from nurses but thankfully we don't have the responsibility (finger of blame) that the nurses have.

 

If someone spends four years at a nursing school, sweats all the exams and sacrifices nearly all their spare time studying they deserve some higher status otherwise what's the use of it all? Registered Nurses have to make many important decisions and if something goes wrong on their shift they take the blame

 

In the US there are Licenced Vocational Nurses and Nurses Aids to empty bed pans, change sheets and clean up feces and I am not demeaning the essential work and care they give. Far from it

[Belinkabelle]

Florence Nightingale had no degree, but she had the skill of caring for her patients

 

The frequent misrepresentation of Florence Nightingale being nothing more than a caring person and the following assumption that this must be all it takes to be a nurse irritates me beyond belief.

 

Nightingale was a gifted mathematician and statistician whose works contributed to more effective nursing and healthcare.

 

If nursing is to be recognised as a profession, and we have some way to go to achieve this, then of course it should be graduate entry. As nursing involves more technical tasks, complex decision making and professional responsibility how can it be acceptable to suggest a less demanding entry route for those who would be unable to undertake a degree? This would not be accepted in other fields and is indicative of the inaccurate and outdated public perception of nursing as a career.

 

Nurses are not 'angels' acting out of nobility. They are, and ought to be, consummate health professionals performing an essential and demanding role in very trying times.