In short, what he's calling "nursing" is really the "nurse's aide" today, or the nursing-home worker who can change dressings, drains, take BP, and call the doctor.The crisis in patient care is not due to the "feminist takeover" of nursing. It's due to bean counters in hospitals and insurance companies who believe that a nurse's aide can do a nurse's job for half the salary. It's due to hospital work environments that are at odds with the *scientific* and *technical* ends of nursing training. Nurses are taught what good patient care is and how to deliver it; they aren't allowed in many hospital work environments to exercise it.
Read the whole thing, as we say in the blogosphere. Recommended to all of us who know and love, or just appreciate, exasperated nurses.
I think people are being too hard on Kurtz, who has summarized, perhaps too eliptically, a more sophisticated argument by Ronald W Dworkin in the new The Public Interest (article not on line, sadly). That argument in turn seems to owe a lot to a 10,000 word article by the British Social Affairs Unit, which used to be online but isn't any more, called Come Back Miss Nightingale. I have a Wordperfect copy of that if people would like to read it - please drop me a line. Many of the objections raised by Anne are dealt with in these publications.
Posted by: Iain Murray on July 15, 2002
Thanks, Iain. I would be interested in seeing that article. I'll try to track down the PI article.
Posted by: Moira on July 15, 2002
Another problem with nursing would be the devaluation in nursing education. When I was in college (about 20 years ago or so) nursing was an extremely easy major. Easy to get into also, most only needed a 'C' average out of high school. This led many students to go into other majors that were more 'competitive'. Education majors were the same, if you couldn't do anything else you could always be a teacher, nurse, etc.
Posted by: Moira Rogow on July 15, 2002
Hello, Mr. Murray. The article you mention sounds very interesting, and I would be most grateful if you would send a copy to me. I understand entirely that sometimes arguments can get attenuated in the translation, and I would like to read the British Social Affairs original.
Posted by: Anne Wilson on July 15, 2002