Letters
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, 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
Recruiting people with the right core values into the profession The report into the failings at Mid Staffs revealed a culture of poor care, where staff were practising without values or the basic standards expected of those working professionally within a healthcare setting (Art&Science January 21). It pointed to the need to recruit people into nursing who can demonstrate the values of compassion, commitment and integrity. We need to recruit team players into nursing who already fly the flag for the core values of care – who think of people as individuals, have the integrity to do what is right, respect people’s dignity and strive for excellence. More time and energy need to be invested into the recruitment process, with follow-up research on what works in terms of values-based recruitment – and what doesn’t. We need to encourage people with experience and maturity into the profession. They don’t necessarily need to be older – just to have had some connection with real life and the outside world. Selection interviews at undergraduate level are key, particularly with group work where good candidates can reveal their skills and talents. We need team players in nursing to help forge links between patients, doctors and the multidisciplinary team, with good communication at every level underpinning the best care management. We need nurses who can communicate and lead by example. Naomi Lyth, by email
WARD ROUNDS HAVE NO PLACE IN TODAY’S HOSPITAL SETTINGS Joan Smith harks back to the old ward rounds – the back rounds – as being an essential component of good basic care (Letters January 21).
Going from bed to bed on a dormitory-style Nightingale ward may have worked in days of old, when nurses undertook obs, gave out pills, did the washing and toileting, and left all the technical side of things to the doctors. But today’s inpatients and nurses are different. The patients are generally sicker, with complex conditions and needs, and the nurses are multi-skilled and confident, capable practitioners able to prioritise their work. Bringing back the ward rounds would be a retrograde step for nurses – and patients. Helena Soni, by email
THE RIGHT-TO-DIE CAMPAIGNER WHO WON A KEY LEGAL RULING Right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy died in the Marie Curie Hospice in
Bradford on December 23, aged 51, having been diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis more than 20 years previously. Her death prompted me to read her book, It’s Not Because I Want to Die, published by HarperCollins in 2010 (ISBN: 978 0 0073 5869 4). Debbie was an active campaigner to change the law on assisted dying in England. In 2009, her long fight was finally rewarded with a court ruling that the legal lack of clarity is a violation of the right to a private and family life. She won a ruling to get clarification on whether her husband Omar Puente would be prosecuted if he helped her to end her life. Debbie was a strong-minded individual who thought that quality not quantity of life was important. Omar supported her in this campaign.
34 february 4 ::from vol 29 no 23 ::by2015 STANDARD Downloaded RCNi.com ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, 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
Recruiting people with the right core values into the profession The report into the failings at Mid Staffs revealed a culture of poor care, where staff were practising without values or the basic standards expected of those working professionally within a healthcare setting (Art&Science January 21). It pointed to the need to recruit people into nursing who can demonstrate the values of compassion, commitment and integrity. We need to recruit team players into nursing who already fly the flag for the core values of care – who think of people as individuals, have the integrity to do what is right, respect people’s dignity and strive for excellence. More time and energy need to be invested into the recruitment process, with follow-up research on what works in terms of values-based recruitment – and what doesn’t. We need to encourage people with experience and maturity into the profession. They don’t necessarily need to be older – just to have had some connection with real life and the outside world. Selection interviews at undergraduate level are key, particularly with group work where good candidates can reveal their skills and talents. We need team players in nursing to help forge links between patients, doctors and the multidisciplinary team, with good communication at every level underpinning the best care management. We need nurses who can communicate and lead by example. Naomi Lyth, by email
WARD ROUNDS HAVE NO PLACE IN TODAY’S HOSPITAL SETTINGS Joan Smith harks back to the old ward rounds – the back rounds – as being an essential component of good basic care (Letters January 21).
Going from bed to bed on a dormitory-style Nightingale ward may have worked in days of old, when nurses undertook obs, gave out pills, did the washing and toileting, and left all the technical side of things to the doctors. But today’s inpatients and nurses are different. The patients are generally sicker, with complex conditions and needs, and the nurses are multi-skilled and confident, capable practitioners able to prioritise their work. Bringing back the ward rounds would be a retrograde step for nurses – and patients. Helena Soni, by email
THE RIGHT-TO-DIE CAMPAIGNER WHO WON A KEY LEGAL RULING Right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy died in the Marie Curie Hospice in
Bradford on December 23, aged 51, having been diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis more than 20 years previously. Her death prompted me to read her book, It’s Not Because I Want to Die, published by HarperCollins in 2010 (ISBN: 978 0 0073 5869 4). Debbie was an active campaigner to change the law on assisted dying in England. In 2009, her long fight was finally rewarded with a court ruling that the legal lack of clarity is a violation of the right to a private and family life. She won a ruling to get clarification on whether her husband Omar Puente would be prosecuted if he helped her to end her life. Debbie was a strong-minded individual who thought that quality not quantity of life was important. Omar supported her in this campaign.
34 february 4 ::from vol 29 no 23 ::by2015 STANDARD Downloaded RCNi.com ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
