Dear Nursing and Midwifery Council - WTF?

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Nursing and Midwifery Council is pushing a degree as the minimum nursing qualification. Coincidentally, nurses are losing their sense of compassion.

Well, blow me down with a feather.

Having done nursing training with the voluntary aid societies, I've got some idea what basic nursing skills involve. Here's a clue: 3 years of academic study is not required. Good physical health is a prerequisite; so is compassion, a strong stomach, attention to detail, ability to listen, reasonable grasp of numerical maths and a cool head. [General disdain for most doctors can be picked up with practice.]

The Nursing and Midwifery Council is trying to up-skill the nursing profession, and relegate the non-academic aspects of nursing to auxiliaries and nursing aides wherever possible. Money quote from the DT article:

From next year, anyone wishing to become a nurse will have to study for a full degree in the subject under new standards introduced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. While the main nursing bodies support the change, patients’ groups are worried it will lead to less caring nurses.

I'm sure that drawing up the curriculum, conducting examinations and inspecting the classes of the nursing degree will be a steady stream of revenue to the NMWC. Guess what? Taxpayers want nurses to nurse. Look it up in a dictionary:

to nurse (verb): to tend or minister to in sickness, infirmity, etc.

Why is the NHS importing so many (Filipino, sub-Saharan African, Spanish) nurses? Because they're actually taught how to care for patients. They may also have good technical skills, but those are secondary to their ability to look after the sick.

Skilled cardiac care, ICU, A+E and obstetric nurses are invaluable to the NHS; that does not replace the need for basic nursing care that dates back to Scutari. The NMWC is burning down the village to roast the pig, and they couldn't seem to care less.