
Five Out Of Six
Nurses Aren't Fit To Be Nurses - And Why I Think The Royal College of Nursing Is
A Disgrace
Vernon Coleman
An astonishing (and
horrifying) survey conducted among 848 readers of the journals Nursing
Standard and Nursing Older People shows that fewer than one in six
nurses say that nothing would prevent them from reporting abuse of older people
in their care.
In other words five out of six nurses would, at least
sometimes, fail to report abuse of the elderly people they were being paid to
look after.
Would these same nurses ignore the abuse of children so
easily?
I suspect not.
This is utterlly appalling and an
indictment of the modern nursing profession.
The same survey shows that
six out of ten nurses would turn a blind eye to the abuse of the elderly. They
would say nothing if they knew that an elderly patient or care home resident was
being beaten, bullied or robbed.
Why are nurses failing their
patients?
One reason is cowardice.
Unbelievably, it seems that
nurses are frightened to report abuse in case they themselves are abused by the
person doing the abuse.
Oh, please.
Another reason is, apparently,
`fear of misinterpreting the situation'.
What sort of political correct
garbage is that?
A report from MPs and peers recently showed that
patients and residents now often suffer malnutrition and dehydration, abuse and
rough treatment, lack of privacy, neglect, poor hygiene and bullying.
Elderly people are left for hours in soiled clothes.
How can
anyone `misinterpret' any of that?
And why?
I'll tell you
why.
It's because nurses are too busy reading the paper or stuffing
themselves with cakes and chocolates.
Nurses who say nothing when they
see abuse are as guilty as the abusers.
What a mess the nursing
profession is in.
A once great profession is, today, in a worse state
than it was in the days of Dickens.
If the nursing profession doesn't
root out the five out of six nurses who are a disgrace then we will soon reach
the point where we will have to get rid of them all and start again.
What
is the Royal College of Nursing doing to protect patients from lazy, cowardly
and good-for-nothing nurses?
In my opinion, as a doctor, it isn't doing
enough.
If it was doing enough then surely five out of six nurses
wouldn't admit that they were prepared to ignore the abuse of their
patients.
Is it so very old-fashioned of me to believe that every nurse
should always report every incident of abuse? Always. Without exception.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 30th August 2007 Read How To Stop Your
Doctor Killing You and Coleman's Laws, by Vernon Coleman. Both books
are available from all good bookshops and from the shop on this website.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2007
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