The damaging demise of vocational nursing

SIR – We must applaud Kathy Gyngell (Comment, January 18) for drawing attention to the demise of the vocational nurse. Thirty years ago my doctor colleagues and I were strongly opposed to the introduction of nursing degrees, but no one took any notice.

While nursing degrees may have introduced a new tier of healthcare worker to support the over-stretched medical profession, they also led to the demise of the traditional hands-on, compassionate nurse.

The loss of vocational nursing will do more to destroy our much admired health service than any level of mismanagement.

Robert Jackson FRCS

Lymington, Hampshire

SIR – Like Dr Charles Walker (Letters, January 18), I find it incredible that qualified nurses from Commonwealth countries find it so hard to register in Britain.

Though these nurses come from countries where English is a first language, they are forced to sit an English-language exam. I wonder whether the same system applies to nurses from the European Union and Eastern Europe.

Chelmsford, Essex

SIR – For almost as long as I can remember, there has been a drive to encourage girls to take up careers in science or engineering.

In this age of gender equality, why is there not a drive to recruit boys for nursing?

Maldon, Essex