Letter: Nurses should be trained in hospitals, not in classrooms
I am a retired nurse and I speak from experience. For me and many of my peers who were trained in schools of nursing based at large teaching hospitals, we feel the rot started when the responsibility for nurse training was transferred from hospital-based training to universities.
Our training was second to none and instilled into us that caring for the patient and all their basic nursing needs was fundamental above all else. After all, that's why we chose a career in nursing.
You do not need a university degree to be a good nurse. To study to be a nurse in a university setting is simply not the appropriate way to learn how to care for patients. Surely after all this time, and with the shocking stories in hospitals from around the country, you can see that for yourselves.
What you do need is an excellent and exceptionally high standard of training in a hospital-based setting in a school of nursing, which I received from the Prince of Wales Orthopaedic Hospital in Rhydlafar, near Cardiff, and then Bristol Royal Infirmary.
In those days (60s and 70s), the hospital was run by a matron – the first mistake was to remove this vital role.
The wards had a ward sister with full responsibility for the running of the ward, followed usually by two staff nurses, an enrolled nurse, a couple of auxiliary nurses (now known as health care assistants).
The rest of the team was a mix of third-year student nurses who, as well as taking care of the patients, mentored the other students. The wards were spotless, because part of our training in those days was learning about hygiene and cleaning in order to prevent cross infection. We were actually were responsible for cleaning the patients' beds and lockers. No MRSA or C. diff then.
When I worked as a practice nurse many years later part of my job was helping to train the students. Imagine my disbelief when the third-year student nurses would tell me they had not worked on a ward for a year or more, and they felt that their course training was not preparing them for the role of a hands-on staff nurse.
After all, these girls were in their final year and about to finish their degree, and they absolutely did not feel ready for the responsibility of running a ward. Something which worried me a lot.
Far too much emphasis is made on course work, and not nearly enough emphasis given on the practical side of basic nursing care. We are now reaping the consequences of this training.
I wish politicians and the General Nursing Council Trust would listen to people from the grass roots who actually know what they are talking about. There needs to be a fundamental change in the training given to student nurses. It needs to revert back to the teaching hospitals, and new schools of nursing should today.
It is truly shocking to hear such stories of abuse and neglect of patients at their most vulnerable and frail.
Fran Gluck, Welshpool
