Nursing no longer a caring profession?

[dave87]

I'd recently read this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...paralysed.html

It wasn't in the Telegraph I saw it, I believe it was the Times. Needless to say it is a reminder of the severity of the choices that Doctors and Nurses have to make everyday. In this case, the procedure wasn't followed, the patient largely ignored and the hospital is now facing a multimillion pound bill for a mistake that was, to the untrained eye at least, avoidable.

So when there are questions of reforms to the NHS, of new procedures and the like in the face of the ever present fiscal reality we find ourself in, we need to remember that the standard of medical care is the central idea of the NHS. Alex has already said it, but patient satisfaction is a secondary goal - the idea is to heal someone, ideally without them catching something worse than the condition they came in. I also believe that patient satisfaction would largely come from the expediency of care - such that the less time for the average person spent in hospital is a positive achievement - but not meeting such a target at the expense of the standard of medical care.

So if that involves a Nurse who needs to focus on the administration of potentially life saving drugs, then so be it. I would add the caveat that suitable assistance should be on hand such that the Nurse who is focused on the drug round can be supported, rather than feeling impeded by the task that Nurse is attending to.

It should also be considered that to those who believe Sick Pay is the answer, which loses more, the economy or the NHS when the person who would otherwise be working is unable to? Answer is largely immaterial because they both do - less productive workers, less earnings, less taxes paid, less money in the central government pot for the NHS to be funded from...

[aidanjt]

It should also be considered that to those who believe Sick Pay is the answer, which loses more, the economy or the NHS when the person who would otherwise be working is unable to? Answer is largely immaterial because they both do - less productive workers, less earnings, less taxes paid, less money in the central government pot for the NHS to be funded from...

Classic broken window fallacy. Just because a person takes a sick day off, it doesn't mean that wealth is automatically destroyed (or not created), money which would otherwise be spent on their wage or 'loss' of productivity will simply be spent elsewhere in the economy. It may negatively impact their company, but some other company will make use of it instead.