The Role Of Nurses

[AB Editor]

 

This poll is closed.

Should Nurses Put Compassion Before Treatment?

• No, treatment should come first. - 116 votes
• 52%
• Yes, compassion is the most important part of their job. - 108 votes
• 48%

See final stats

Stats until: 00:35 Mon 29th Apr 2024 (Refreshed every 5 minutes)

© AnswerBank Ltd 2000 - 2024. All Rights Reserved.

[Sqad]

Dave....a nurse who has BOTH is special......................not many SPECIAL people about in any walk of life.

[Davethedog]

I think thats a sad indication of our society.

[horseshoes]

I'm not sure why nurses need a degree. Years ago, you became an SEN (State Enrolled Nurse) by training for 2 years, mostly ward based. SRNs (State Registered Nurse) trained for 3 years with more classroom based training. Why the need to put them on a degree course? We could be potentially losing lots of really good nurses who are not up to, or indeed interested in, all the academic work required to gain a degree. Nurses should be in nursing because they have a "calling" not because they see it as a means to an end in getting a degree. From what we see on the wards in our hospital, nurses certainly aint what they used to be. Bring back the Matron and the right reasons for going into nursing.

[emmie]

Horses that won't happen now, many just see it as a job nothing more, sad of course, and potentially disastrous for the patients in their care.

[tinkerbell23]

But if your not the best academic like me and you stick in anyhow because you care and want to be a nurse.....?
Agreed some pass all the tests but have no social skills...

Not one person so far has anything good to say as usual...its really not a nice feeling and sad actually x

[jackthehat]

Why, in the name of all that is holy, should a Nurse need a degree?

(And I refer anyone to my first answer in this thread by way of explanation)

[emmie]

JTH the answer is you don't, common sense, compassion and a view that the patients are in your care not just someone who is on a conveyor belt shunted in and out, that is how my mother was made to feel, and i have had similar treatment.

[tinkerbell23]

Why does anyone need a degree then?

[Sqad]

tinker

\\\\\Not one person so far has anything good to say as usual...its really not a nice feeling and sad actually x\\\\

Oi! I have........a good nurse is worth her weight in gold.....she needs better pay than a less "effective nurse"....but hey! this is the NHS and run by the Government=Unions, and will never happen.

Look tinker.......if you want to be a nurse and i believe you do....just do it....shoot for the TOP......work hard and satisfy yourself, judged by your own standards and then nobody can fault you.

[sunny-dave]

To cheer up tinks (and because it's true) - I've come across many wonderful, committed nurses both as a patient and during my own NHS work. In particular the community nurses do a difficult job, often in less than ideal conditions, and the ones I've worked with have been both cheerful and efficient :)

The snag is (I think) that one negative experience can wipe all the good things from a persons memory - which is unfair ...

[jackthehat]

Tinks, I am not having a pop at you.

I am asking why someone, like you, who wishes to go into a caring an compassionate profession should be *required* to get a degree.....

You have studied long and hard to achieve it, that much is obvious, and deserve praise for it.......but there will be many youngsters who may have similarly considered entering nursing, but know themselves to be incapable of securing a degree and so the NHS may be poorer for their lack.

[rowanwitch]

http://onlinelibrary....1997025302.x/abstract

http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/15389141

This was the sort of thing coming out when I was nursing at this point the movement to turn nursing into a proper 'proffession' had been going on about 15 years When I qualified in 1992 we had done 3 years of combined academic and practical study. We were the last intake to do an old style practice based course lthough we still had to produce a third year dissertation

[pink-kittens]

Treatment as in medication etc, before compassion

Treatment as in the way she was looked after with food, bed changing, empathy etc is completely different

[LoftyLottie]

Treatment

[AB Editor]

JTH my understanding is that the idea of "degreed" nurses was to give them more legitimacy as "professionals" and is often pushed by the nursing unions for this reason. It's similar to TA's wishing to be considered the equal of teachers (again, another union dispute I'd overheard previously). I don't understand why separate roles cannot be accepted within organizations.

Regarding the divisiveness of this poll; that's the point! :)

[tinkerbell23]

Thing is....i never wanted to go to uni or do a degree- but the want to be a nurse obviously required this! Therefore i stuck in abd am now sitting with a degree and awaiting registration before i can work.

If you want it enough then you will go for it. To me it makes me think why dies any professional need a degree then- teachers etc xx

Thanks sqad...believe me I will. (just need a job now-lol)...

Ps i know no ones taking a pop at me- neither am i taking a pop at anyonelse x

[LoftyLottie]

Treatment with medication etc. should come first
But overall treatment covers compassion.
So my answer would be treatment delivered with compassion.

[pink-kittens]

Quite lofty

It's an all in one kinda thing, isn't it?

But as I had to make a choice, then my reply as above

[LoftyLottie]

"I believe that the over-training and greater expectations placed on those entering the Nursing profession both discourages some of those who would be able, compassionate nurses but are less academically able, and inflates the self-perception of those who successfully 'advance' to the point where the latter view the most basic of services as demeaning to their status. "

Well said Jack, I completely agree.

[LoftyLottie]

I actually doubt the value of degrees in a great deal of professions and I don't think degrees these days actually are a good measure of capability or intelligence.