Madam, - Ireland, since 2002, is the only country in the world where there is to be only one category of nurse, i.e. a "degree" nurse. The Commission on Nursing (1998) stated: "Now is the time for nurses. . .to gain autonomy. . .by shedding the facets of nursing. . .which have been perceived as restrictive and stunting the growth of the profession". Apparently these facets - of personal nursing care, the washing, the feeding, the toileting, the touching of the bodies of the weak and vulnerable - are now all "non-nursing" activities. I disagree, as indeed do many nurses.
Earlier this year, the AGM of the Irish Medical Organisation unanimously passed this motion: "In order to respect the dignity of patients and to maintain standards of personal patient care, the IMO calls upon the Minister for Health and Children and on An Bord Altranais to urgently examine the introduction of a new healthcare professional category of Licensed Practical Nurse".
The nursing profession cannot just withdraw from core nursing, unilaterally rewriting its contract with society. Professions and their members are accountable to those served. Care assistants are supervised by nurses. The care they deliver is the professional responsibility of nurses. An Bord Altranais, the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery and the Chief Nursing Officer have been notably silent since the RTÉ exposé of care standards at the Leas Cross Nursing Home.
Those of us who work in the front line are not surprised. - Yours, etc,
ROISIN HEALY, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.