Letters

Send your views by email to [email protected], post on the Nursing Standard Facebook page or visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk

Please keep letters to a maximum of 200 words, and include your full name and a daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited

Why are we closing the door in the face of future nursing talent? I am totally against the plan for nursing students to pay their own tuition fees, as recently proposed by the Council of Deans of Health and Universities UK (news July 8). The UK desperately needs nurses, so we should be paying to train them. Is that such an alien concept? Or should we continue robbing the developing world of their much-needed clinical staff while we ponder how to plug our staffing gaps? Scrapping the bursary and replacing it with a loan to cover living expenses (as the proposal also suggests) may be a sensible solution to the dire financial position many nursing students find themselves in. But making them pay for their own pre-registration training, therefore taking on thousands of pounds in debt, is likely to deter all but middle class school leavers from entering the profession, and would most certainly shut the door on many of those who choose to enter nursing later in life. Nursing is a calling for many, so we should at least try and make it an attractive one. Let’s put the proper support in place to enable our valued healthcare assistants to take the next step into nursing. Let’s catch all those desk jockeys who are longing for a clinical career. And let’s ensure our school leavers – male and female – look at nursing and see a fantastic career opportunity. Grant Byrne, third-year nursing student, University of Glasgow

SUSPENDING NICE’S WORK ON SAFE STAFFING IS TOTALLY SCANDALOUS The suspension of work on safe staffing from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is a scandal, contravening the government’s endorsement of recommendation 23 of the Francis report. Almost 100% of members at RCN congress last month voted for the work

to be reinstated. As front line staff, they know what is needed, and recognise the importance of NICE undertaking this programme of work as an independent body with the appropriate research capabilities. They must be listened to, and the NICE work reinstated. The disassociation of management from front line staff is a constant theme of failing NHS trusts, as demonstrated by the Mid Staffordshire inquiry. NHS England is too far removed from the front line to undertake safe staffing work, putting money above the quality of service. If we do not have safe staffing levels, we will not have a safe NHS. Instead, we will have another Mid Staffs. Susan Osborne, chair of the Safe Staffing Alliance

NHS ENGLAND’S CONFUSION OVER MENTAL HEALTH MAKES US FEARFUL A key recommendation of the Francis report was for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

(NICE) to review the evidence base for safe nurse staffing levels across care settings in England. In mental health, this focused on inpatient and community settings, but this work was halted last month by NHS England. Not only does this decision overrule a key recommendation of the Francis report, it directly contradicts the notion that NICE is an independent organisation. The decision has also been opposed by significant stakeholders, including Sir Robert Francis himself and patient organisations, and there appears to be no consideration of who, beyond the Mental Health Taskforce, will undertake this work. In her recent letter on NHS staffing, chief nursing officer for England Jane Cummings managed to confuse safe staffing in mental health areas with multidisciplinary working and skill mix, as well as devaluing the skills of mental health nurses.

32 july 15 :: vol 29 noRCNi.com 46 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded from by ${individualUser.displayName} on Oct 11, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why are we closing the door in the face of future nursing talent?

Why are we closing the door in the face of future nursing talent? - PDF Download Free
139KB Sizes 3 Downloads 8 Views