Don't knock today's nurses
I WANT to refer to comments made by Pat Jones comments (Evening Post, October 6) at a reunion dinner of former Swansea General Hospital nurses who said: "today's nurses only looking after six patients and they couldn't tell you what happens".
I trained in Swansea Gen in the 1950s. There were good nurses but there were also a fair share of not so good.
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The turnover of patients in those days was slow, patients were hospitalised for weeks.
Today the turnover is much quicker, paperwork has increased, which I might add, nurses complain about, leaving little time for getting to know the patients or families, which in the 1950s you were able to do.
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My husband was an inpatient on Ward G in Morriston in 2010 for 8 weeks; the last week of his life my daughter (also a nurse) and I stayed with him 24 hours a day.
I observed first-hand how hard working and dedicated the staff were from medical through to health care assistants.
They treated us with compassion during this stressful time and for that I will always be grateful.
As for knowing and remembering patients, when my youngest daughter was admitted to Morriston as an emergency some 8 months later, she was treated by several of the nursing staff who cared for my late husband.
These staff all remembered my husband and the family, treating my daughter with the utmost care.
Please don't place all nurses into the category of not caring because that would be wrong.
The training has changed, but so have patients' expectations, (as it happens I disagree with it being a degree course, but this is how it will stay).
Today most of our nurses are as dedicated as they were in the 1950s.
We, as the older generation tend to look back at our training through rose-coloured glasses.
Please stop criticising the present day people who are (the majority of them) doing their best under very difficult circumstances.
My grand-daughter is also a qualified nurse and treats her job with the same passion and enthusiasm I did throughout my career.
Muriel White
Retired nursing sister
Address supplied
Comments
by Neathboy234
Tuesday, October 16 2012, 10:24AM
“Today nurses work every bit as hard as they did back in the 1950's, and for not great money as well. The big differences between now and then is the amount of abuse they receive, especially in A and E.”