BMJ  2006;332:51 (7 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7532.51-b

Letter

The nursing profession's coming of age

Contribution of "maxi" nurses is exaggerated

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Editor—Like many "maxi" nurses, Young seems to have an exaggerated notion not only of her worth but also of the contribution she makes.1 She trots out the cliché that nurses are better than doctors at communication and are more "holistic." If I saw the numbers of patients the "maxi" nurses I see at work then I too would be a fountain of compassion and empathy with all the time in the world, because I would only be seeing a third of the patients I now assess.

Susan Duncan, consultant neurologist

Hope Hospital, Salford M6 8HD susan@susanduncan.co.uk

Competing interests: SD is a registered medical practitioner.

  1. Young G. The nursing profession's coming of age. BMJ 2005;331: 1415. (10 December.)[Free Full Text]

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The nursing profession's coming of age
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