Care comes first

NURSING used to be considered a vocation for people who wanted to care for others.

Today, it is rightly considered to be a professional career with training to degree level.

One thing that has not changed, however, is the need for patients to receive basic, compassionate personal care. This requires special qualities from a nurse that can’t be measured in a classroom.

I would advocate a one-year nursing foundation course during which trainees would work on wards under the supervision of a qualified nurse. They would be expected to help wash, comfort, assist with feeding and do all the menial and often less than pleasant jobs that can make a patient’s life much more acceptable.

Only when trainees have shown the ability and willingness to truly care for patients would they be deemed ready to start nursing training. MAriAN MacLAreN, West Wickham, Kent.