The NMC should focus on things that really matter - not sexy nurse calenders

Three things have been puzzling me. The first is how can Donna from Holby City nip off into theatre to be a scrub nurse when she is rostered to work on the ward?

Second, why was Max from EastEnders wearing a spinal collar while lying in bed with his head on a pillow?

Third – and this is where I switch to the real world – why have people been getting their knickers in a twist over a provocative calendar featuring ‘real’ nurses?

The NMC has said that those who posed could risk removal from the register.

Surely there are more important things for our governing body to deal with? What about nurses belonging to the BNP?

To be fair, the NMC did comment on that. They said that it was OK as long as ‘one demonstrates a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity’.

So, it’s alright to support a party that advocates racial intolerance, yet posing semi-naked for a calendar is a sin that should be punished with the end of one’s career? Is it April Fool’s day at the NMC?

Have they seen the calendar? It shows no ‘real’ nurse uniforms, most of the photos are of women in their underwear and not all of them are NHS nurses. Dental, veterinary and care workers applied to pose, slightly attracted by the fact that previous models had gained lucrative modelling contracts.

You see, this isn’t the first ‘real nurses’ calendar. All of last year’s participants, are as far as I can tell, still on the register.

Is this derogatory to nursing? Not in my opinion. If we complain about this, we should complain about seaside postcards, Carry On films, Holby City, Grey’s Anatomy and so on.

Does it give the wrong impression? I don’t think anyone who is ill enough to receive our skills will be thinking of us as sex objects, and those who voice those beliefs have serious issues if they can’t differentiate between what is right and what is wrong.

No one complained to the NMC about staff from the radiology department at Bedford Hospital who bared all for a charity fundrasing calendar. They stripped off far more than those on the ‘real nurses’ calendar.

Perhaps posing naked for charity rather than personal gain is – like supporting the BNP – according to the NMC, acceptable.

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