What Happened To Caring?
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What Happened To Caring?
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I am referring to an article in this week's BMJ: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e6485 . Overview: Here, Des Spence, discusses whether Doctors and, especially, Nurses, have lost that caring a
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Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » What Happened To Caring?
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What Happened To Caring?
posted at 2/10/2012 4:29 PM BST
on bmj.com
Moved from the General forum
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Posts: 92
First: 20/3/2012 Last: 25/10/2012 |
I am referring to an article in this week's BMJ: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e6485. Overview: Here, Des Spence, discusses whether Doctors and, especially, Nurses, have lost that caring attitude. Highlighting the recent RCN campaign to try and highlight just what it is that Nurses do, Des explores whether Nursing has moved from a compassionate and caring Profession to a hands-off, more technical role and whether a Nursing Degree really means anything or is it a "trophy degree"? He offers no real solutions bar one interesting one: That all prospective nurses and doctors should spend some time in a health related setting, for a month, providing basic care to patients, before starting their training. My View: Obviously Des discusses more but the points above are the most pertinent and I agree with him mostly. Nursing is becoming more and more theoretical rather than practical based...newly-qualified nurses are coming into posts without the basic-care knowledge that is needed but with an excellent grasp on theories. Part of the problem is the training system that focusses a lot more on teoretical knowledge than on practical knowledge and this is going to continue with the introduction of an all-degree profession. The other problem was with Nursing becoming a "Profession" rather than just a Vocation. With Professional status came the need and desire to take on more responsibility. Gone are the days when nurses just want to nurse, now they want to be Prescribers, practitioners, run clinics, take on the roles of doctors. Of course, there are nurses, such as myself, who are at their most happy and content when we are looking after a patient at a basic level but there are a growing number who are not interested in basic care but want to do the more exciting stuff. Part of the problem is also time pressures: With staffing levels being reduced and the need to do more, we are being removed from our patients by paperwork, management issues or just too much to do in a shift. I like nothing more than to do manual blood pressures on all my patients as they are more accurate and it gives you physical contact with the patients but I rarely get the time now and so end up using a machine. It saddens me with the direction nursing is going where, in a few years, we will no longer be called nurses but will be practitioners or something. I long for the days when I could sit and just have a chat with a patient without worrying about whether I have the time. Nursing is going through massive changes and I don't like the direction it is taking
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 2/10/2012 4:48 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1336
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 16/6/2013 |
I can't comment on the nursing world but I doubt you will get into medical school these days without demonstrating the kind of work experience Des talks about. However, if it's just going through the motions for the sake of it one has to wonder what the point is. I have been a doctor for 25 years and more and I don't think ourselves or our nursing and allied profession colleagues are any less caring nowadays. Yes the nature of the job and the expectations on all us have changed and become more bureaucratic but you only become less caring as a consequence if you choose to be so. |
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 2/10/2012 11:10 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2135
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 18/6/2013 |
When I was hoping to get into medical school, the Dean was more interested in my rugby prowess than my Scouting First Aid badge. So if doctors have forgotten how to be caring, then it was a recent acquisition. Conversely on nurse caring, don't ask Mrs.D, the highly qualified specialist nurse. She's seen it from both sides and she'll tell you that the majority of nurses today don't give a monkey's. (For me, she does) And she blames it on nursing degrees and the 'advanced nurse role' whereby nurses take on previously medical duties, and the less caring attitude that goes with them. JOhn |
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 3/10/2012 2:40 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 4
First: 2/10/2012 Last: 3/10/2012 |
In Response to Re: What Happened To Caring?: I can't comment on the nursing world but I doubt you will get into medical school these days without demonstrating the kind of work experience Des talks about. However, if it's just going through the motions for the sake of it one has to wonder what the point is. I have been a doctor for 25 years and more and I don't think ourselves or our nursing and allied profession colleagues are any less caring nowadays. Yes the nature of the job and the expectations on all us have changed and become more bureaucratic but you only become less caring as a consequence if you choose to be so. people should always care for othersPosted by skyesteve |
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 3/10/2012 9:56 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1213
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 14/6/2013 |
I think medical and nursing staff do still care, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't care - we could earn more money doing other things, for sure. I think the issue here is that we struggle to have sufficient time to care - expectations are so different now from when I was a house officer, there simply isn't the time to sit down and talk with the patients in the same way I was able to do 12 years ago. It's a tough gig, and I think the vast majority of doctors and nurses are trying very hard every day.
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 5/10/2012 10:43 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1828
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 18/6/2013 |
There is definitely a process of erosion in all those qualities of providing empathic care. It has to do with many things: overworked medical personnel due to overcrowded wards and lack of medical personnel due to different reasons, mainly financial. Then there is the modern life with all the stress and "super mother" "super father" requirements. Working long hours and also let it be said the degrees and over academisation.More degrees do not necessarily mean better attitude. It is good to be more educated and better equipped scientifically, but it does nothing good to basic empathy toward patients. The various QA methods used today measure quantity and monet being spent of healthcare and less quality of healthcare.And when you are being measured quantitatively rather than qualitatively, you don't get more empathic. There is also a lack in basic education of patient- personnel communication. And then there is a change in human behaviour toward each other, not to the better but to worse. |
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Re: What Happened To Caring?
posted at 5/10/2012 10:56 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3059
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 13/6/2013 |
It is a universally observed fact that the doctors as well as the nursing staff are dramatically losing their caring attitude towards the patients. This may be partly due to the commercialization of the 'healthcare industry'. The previous way to approach the patients with utmost sympathy without financial interests may be regained with proper guidelines to the healthcare professionals, which seems difficult in the present scenario. |
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