The nursing profession's coming of age

Editor—Young claims that the distinction between medicine (diagnosis and cure) and nursing (care) has become increasingly blurred.¹ No it has not—patients still have the same illnesses and still require the same care as they did before. It is the abandonment of nursing by modern nurses that is new, to the detriment of health care in this country.

“The only aim to consider is that we respond safely, sensitively, and effectively to our patients' needs.”¹ Exactly. So can we please get back to basics and have trained nurses to nurse and trained doctors to doctor. Instead we have care assistants playing at being nurses, nurses playing at being doctors, doctors playing at being managers, and managers just playing.

Here is a radical idea. Why not have doctors who are trained to doctor, do the doctoring, and nurses who are trained to nurse, do the nursing. That way the patients might actually get “the best care possible” that the Department of Health propaganda unit keeps telling us about.