Tories say commission's pledge is an 'insult' to nurses

2 March, 2010 | By Graham Clews

The Conservatives have described as an “insult”, the inclusion of a pledge for nurses to take in the report of the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery, which was published today.

Shadow health minister Anne Milton said: “The idea of a pledge will be seen as an insult to all good nurses. In areas where standards are poor it is naïve to believe it will make any difference to improving care.”

Ms Milton also criticised the review for missing “obvious” ways to improve nursing.

“For example there is no mention of reducing the targets that contributed to the tragedy of mid-Staffordshire nor is there any mention of reducing the unnecessary paperwork that keeps nurses away from their patients,” she said. “If we are going to strengthen the role of the charge nurse and wards sister the Government need to free them up to take control of their wards.”

Patients Association Director Katherine Murphy welcomed the pledge, but said: “It’s a sad indictment that there is a need to restate the commitment of nurses and midwives, the caring profession, to high quality patient care.

“Patients expect compassion from all healthcare professionals, but rightly or wrongly, especially from nurses. And whilst the pledge is a good first step, ensuring every nurse and midwife lives up to it, and more importantly is allowed to live up to it, is the only outcome patients are interested in”.

Readers' comments (16)

Roger Hodgson | 2-Mar-2010 9:32 pm
Not one of the corrupt, amateurish, disingenuous collection of spivs and shysters which call themselves Honourable Members should offer advice to Nurses working in an underfunded, understaffed service.

Come on MPs, clean up your own act, repay the public funds stolen, pledge never to do it again, do a fair and honest days work and if you survive the effort then perhaps you can be permitted io tell real professionals how to perform at work.
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Anonymous | 2-Mar-2010 9:52 pm
Well said Roger
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Anonymous | 2-Mar-2010 10:38 pm
Hear hear Roger!
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Anonymous | 3-Mar-2010 8:14 am
completely agree roger!
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judy mewburn | 3-Mar-2010 8:50 am
Roll on the general election when we can get rid of the charlatans that presently run the country. A new daft law is passed every day and this latest stupidity tops it all. As if nurses did not go into the profession because they care about people and their well being. We have learnt from politicians that you can say one thing and do the opposite the next day. Cut the pen pushing madness and allow nurses to nurse .
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Charlotte Peters Rock | 3-Mar-2010 11:29 am
From personal experience, Nurses need to pledge that they will act in a professional manner and guard the safety of their patients, especially when they are sent into the home of supposedly dying patients. And then they need to act professionally - and keep the pledge.

Had nurses (and a swathe of senior Nursing Sisters) actually taken responsibility for their own actions, my father, Ralph Winstanley, would probably still have been alive. (google: ralphwinstanleyofwath)
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Anonymous | 3-Mar-2010 1:26 pm
Never thought I'd do this but I agree fully with the Tory point of view.
To Gordon and the RCN....shove your pledge
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Jacqueline de Laporte | 3-Mar-2010 4:11 pm
The only Pledge I shall be taking will be linked with the duster it goes with!
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kathleen white | 3-Mar-2010 5:32 pm
Well said Roger 2-March 2010--9:32, except to say that it was not only MPs who agreed to this insulting proposal. Yes nurses and midwives represented us on the comission
To Charolotte 3-March- 2010-11:29, I am sorry to hear about the maltreatment that your late father received. Too many people UK wide are suffering similar experiences, and it is not acceptable. However, signing a pledge will not resolve that malpractice. The NMC Code of Conduct already exists to protect the public,and obviously it is not working.
The solution is effective nurse management and leadership; and that is what we do not have.

Until frontline nurses are courageous enough to support each other and speak out, we will get more of the same and that is not good enough.

A good starting point would be mass refusal to the subservient signing of this insulting pledge.
I will not sign

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Anonymous | 3-Mar-2010 5:42 pm
Maybe Ms Milton has been reading this blog!!
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Chris Preston | 5-Mar-2010 9:07 pm
The idea of this pledge is a complete and utter insult, especially given who has proposed it and I would give up my registration rather than sign it.
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valerie thomson | 9-Mar-2010 9:55 am
this is a complete insult to nursing. Nurses consistently get a raw deal precisely because they consistently try to care for people, despite poor wages, inadequate staffing, frequent unpaid or unrecognized overtime, abuse and not striking.Its about time the amazing service that Nurses give selflessly shift after shift, and constant striving to improve their nursing skills through ongoing training is recognized and rewarded.
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Martin Gray | 9-Mar-2010 2:02 pm
Well said Kathleen White! 100% agree. However if the code of conduct is not working then we need to investigating why not. As you so rightly say, it is the nurses at the delivery end of care provision that need to stand together and unite against the ineffective management, and that includes nurses that are involved in that management. After all, is it not the sister or charge nurse that runs the ward who has the responsibility, and therefore the accountability, for the standard of care patients are given?

The pledge will change nothing and has only fuelled the fire of resentment that nurses already have. If the Tories want to get the nurses votes then this show of support is going to go in their favour.
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P. Damien | 9-Mar-2010 6:39 pm
Well the tories would say this wouldn't they! Anything to garner votes.....the tories have just picked up on the nurses discontent

Any nurse who votes tory quite frankly needs a psychiatric assessment and MRI brain scan.

Remember what happened to the NHS under the last tory govt. Trouble is Labour aren't much better.
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Anonymous | 9-Mar-2010 9:05 pm
I am a junior ward sister and believe me, I have tried and tried to ensure high standards of care. I am also known as a whistle-blower who has been involved in the suspension of two registered nurses because they did not provide good quality care. On the other side of the coin, I have been reported to the NMC myself by a relative who was trying to get back at me because I tried to ensure infection control standards were adhered to.
I will not sign any pledge because it wont make any difference to care, whether you are a good nurse or not.
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Martin Gray | 9-Mar-2010 11:31 pm
Nick which party SHOULD nurses vote for then?The BNP? UKIP? Of course every political party is going to jump on this as a vote catcher, but people do have to actually make the effort to turn out rather than sit on their hands pleading the excuse 'what difference can my vote possibly make?'

I'm not interested in politics and politicians have always been subject to endless critism ( not without good grounds) so it really is a dilemma as to which party to vote for.

We've seen the catastrophic results under Labour, the Lib Dems are not strong enough to field a government without coalition, so what's our alternatives?

Having read the comments made by the NMC I doubt if it will make one iota of difference which party gets elected, we still have to overcome the lead boots of the NMC hierarchy.

As for anonymous 9 Mar 9:05 I am sincerely sorry for the terrible experiences you have undergone, but support you in that you DO take the right stance and DO something constructive. I can only presume the relative was also a nurse, which demonstrates just how vindictive we can be to our colleagues in the pursuit of revenge.
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