From The Patient (Mohamed Khadra, 2009) p81-2
The nurse looked at him blankly. Derek had no confidence that she was going to increase the irrigation to his patient’s bladder. His lack of confidence was wise. Of the 30 patients on the ward, four had intravenous infusions that had run out, 12 had not received their medications on time, 28 had not had their sheets changed since admission and all 30 had not had a wash in the last three days.
The whole face of nursing was changing rapidly and for the worse. At a time when most professional groups were trying to inject more industry experience into university degrees, nursing had retreated from hospital-based training in favour of university-based education. This move seemed to be led by nurses in academia with their heads in the sand who were artificially creating a fear that hospital-based training diminished nursing as a profession and produced instead handmaidens for doctors. For the vast majority of doctors, nothing could be further from the truth. Now, instead of being part of a team, nurses came out of university with a resentful attitude towards any who made them feel like they were nurses. It was as if, since university-based nursing education, the graduates in nursing wanted to do anything but nursing. Hence, the plethora who sought to take on traditional doctoring duties by becoming nurse practitioners, when what the system needed most of all was nurses nurses proud of nursing and proud to be part of that most honoured of professions.
The chances that this particular surgeon was going to get his patient’s irrigation increased were minimal. Who did he think he was, anyway? The nurse went back to counting the syringes for the audit.
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