AppId is over the quota
21 October 2011 Last updated at 02:27 GMT By Prof Ian Peate Consultant editor, British Journal of Nursing
Following the Care Quality Commission's recent report on what it called "alarmingly" poor care for elderly hospital patients, leading nurse Prof Ian Peate says in this week's Scrubbing Up that the profession should look again at how it trains people to look after older people.Once again we read about the disgraceful care of our elderly and frail population and once again I cringe with embarrassment as I read how we abuse the people who we have the privilege to care for.
Yes I know there are some excellent examples of high quality outstanding care provided to people. But there is something seriously wrong here.
Nursing is well on its way to setting minimum standards for a degree level nursing programme and justifiably so, given the complexities of care and the demands the public rightly make in insisting on high quality, safe and effective care.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates nurses and midwives in the UK.
It sets standards for education, attempting to ensure that nurses possess the right skills and qualities when they start work as a qualified nurse.
What the NMC does not do is stipulate any mandatory requirements for elderly care. They leave this up to the individual educational institutions, so each will approach the teaching of elderly care in a variety of ways.
The time has come for the NMC to compel those running courses to stipulate how much time should be dedicated to the care of the elderly, in practice and theory.
There is a need to ensure that students of nursing - our future staff nurses who will be looking after me when I am older - are able to care confidently and competently for older people - geriatrics.
'High touch' - not high-techThe art and science of gerontology has all but gone and this is a pity.
As a nursing student I was privileged to take a course that instilled in me the skills required to care for geriatrics patients, responding to their unique needs as people who have a number of concurrent illnesses and take a variety of medications.
If nurses get the care of older people right by applying the theory to practice, paying attention to feeding them and providing them with fluids, washing and cleaning them when they are unable to wash themselves, communicating with them and encouraging them through caring, kindness and compassion then caring for other patients will come naturally.
These are high level skills that require the nurse to apply scientific principles to the art of caring.As a student I was assessed, on the job - by an experienced nurse - in caring for geriatric patients. But that specific check is no longer required.
We should not be ashamed, embarrassed or made to feel politically incorrect when using the term geriatric.
It is a speciality, with care provided by skilled practitioners, on the geriatric ward as opposed to a busy acute medical ward where high-tech is favoured and preferred over "high-touch".
We have witnessed our medical colleagues embrace so-called "soft skills" (communication skills, a good bedside manner) through their improved undergraduate education.
NMC take heed.
Demand the curriculum you validate has explicit elements of geriatric care in them, in the classroom and on the ward; direct that no student will progress if they do not pass the an elderly care part of their course; continue to reinforce the need for all staff to speak out when they witness substandard or abusive care but also insist that those who speak out are supported.
Shame on us nurses.
We need to say sorry to our patients and to tell them what we are going to do to get it right, and we need to be brought to account each time we fail to provide care that is compassionate, kind and humane.
The Royal College of Nursing said it did not want relatives performing nurses' tasks Hospital visiting times should be extended so patients' relatives can become more involved in their care, the Royal College of Nursing has said.
The Royal College of Nursing say the workforce in Scotland is at "breaking point" Fewer than a third of Scotland's nurses feel the profession offers a secure job, the Royal College of Nursing says.
Kaiser Permanente employees walkout to protest proposed benefit cuts and a lack of progress on contract talks outside the Kaiser Permanente hospital Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Los Angeles. About 2,500 employees: nurses, social workers and therapists walked the picket Wednesday as part of a larger three-day strike across California to protest Kaiser attempt to reduce their retirement benefits and health care coverage. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Kaiser Permanente employees walkout to protest proposed benefit cuts and a lack of progress on contract talks outside the Kaiser Permanente hospital Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Los Angeles. About 2,500 employees: nurses, social workers and therapists walked the picket Wednesday as part of a larger three-day strike across California to protest Kaiser attempt to reduce their retirement benefits and health care coverage. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)eval("var currentItemd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 1;");eval("var nextd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;");eval("var previousd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;"); 
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nurses in red union shirts carried signs and chanted slogans outside dozens of Northern and Central California hospitals into the night Thursday as part of a one-day strike over benefit cuts and other concessions sought by hospital management.The California Nurses Association, the union organizing the strike, expected nearly 23,000 nurses to participate although hospital officials reported that many nurses had crossed the picket line.Union officials could not provide an estimate of how many nurses took part in the strike, but Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association, described it as "overwhelming participation."Striking nurses were planning to return to work at 7 a.m. Friday, but Idelson said he expected lockouts at some of the hospitals.The strike affected 33 not-for-profit hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and the independent Children's Hospital Oakland, said Idelson.Hospital officials said they had made preparations to minimize any possible patient disruptions. Replacement nurses were on hand at some of the eight Sutter Health hospitals affected by the walk-out, the hospital said."Surgeries are continuing, babies are continuing to be born," hospital spokeswoman Karen Garner said.A strike involving 23,000 nurses would be large, particularly in recent years when the strength of organized labor has declined, said John-Paul Ferguson, assistant professor of organizational labor at Stanford University."It's rare for us to have these days in the United States that many people on a coordinated strike," Ferguson said.The eight hospitals employ about 4,500 nurses who are members of the union, according to Garner. At least at two of the hospitals, a majority of unionized nurses who were scheduled to work reported for duty, Garner said."Many of our nurses recognize that our hospitals provide competitive wages, competitive benefits and a rewarding working environment, and they've chosen to report to work to care for our patients," she said.Children's Hospital Oakland was also expected to bring in replacement nurses. The hospital had rescheduled elective surgeries as well, according to Erin Goldsmith, a hospital spokeswoman.Kaiser officials said many nurses had crossed the picket line and their hospitals were "fully staffed."The focus of the strike was Sutter Health, where union officials say nurses in contract negotiations are being asked to accept thousands of dollars in higher costs for their health care.Sutter's proposed concessions would also reduce the ability of certain nurses to advocate for patients, cut pay for newly hired nurses, and slash vacations and holiday pay, according to the union.At Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland — a Sutter Health-affiliated hospital — nurses held signs that read, "Community Care, Not Corporate Profits," and "Some Cuts Don't Heal.""We're not just here for money," said Vicki Theocharis, a nurse in the hospital's oncology unit. "We want to take care of the patients, and it almost feels like we're being penalized for doing it."Millicent Borland, 65, a nurse on the union bargaining team at Summit Medical Center, said the cuts management has proposed would set a dangerous precedent in the health care industry."It would set a precedent that all other management will think about and pass it down to other workers," she said.Garner has said the hospital has an obligation to keep health care costs down for patients.Union members at Children's Hospital, who have been without a contract for more than a year, have objected to a proposed increase in the cost of a health care plan the hospital offers.At Kaiser Permanente, 17,000 nurses were expected to walk-off the job to show solidarity with the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The union is in contract talks with Kaiser and facing demands for cuts in health and retirement benefits, Idelson said.Thursday's action was among the largest nurses' strikes in recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In two strikes in March and May, up to 2,500 health care workers, including 2,100 nurses, held one-day walkouts at Kaiser Permanente's flagship Los Angeles Medical Center as part of a contract dispute.The last largest nurses' strike, according to the BLS, was in June 2010, when a dispute over nurse-patient ratios led to a one-day walkout of 12,000 nurses working at 14 Minneapolis-area hospitals.Kaiser Permanente has said it is bargaining in good faith.The strike is scheduled for one day, but Sutter Health and Children's Hospital officials said nurses will not be able to immediately return to work because the hospitals' contracts with replacement agencies require a minimum number of days of service.At Sutter Health, that ranges from three to five days, Garner said. At Children's Hospital, it is five days, according to Goldsmith.___Associated Press writer Terence Chea in Oakland and Jennifer Farrar of the Associated Press News Research Center contributed to this report.Associated Press 
