Care concerns

As an octogenarian who recently had a hip replacement in the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, I would like to add my voice to the many others who would love to see tender loving care on the syllabus of a nurse’s training. The care I received, or saw given, varied between almost saintly (twice) and deplorable.

For students to spend the first year or so solely in a classroom seems to me a poor introduction to a 12-hour shift on a busy ward.

Most of those who came on duty cheerful and willing ended their long day – or night – dismissive, unhelpful and frazzled.

In 1948, when I started my training, we did not need degrees and were certainly not technicians in the modern sense. I do not remember that TLC was ever mentioned. If you applied to become a nurse, you supposedly took it for granted.

But it did seem, while I was in the hospital, that without the leadership and supervision which a sister or charge nurse used to give, patients are often left unhappy – and possibly at risk. Surely this can only leave both nurses and relatives less than happy.

Veronica Wood

Tweedside Park

Kelso