NURSES URGED TO EXTEND SKILLS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31540, 30 November 1967, Page 2

NURSES URGED TO EXTEND SKILLS

Psychiatric nurses graduating after training at Sunnyside Hospital were urged to “concern themselves with the training of successive generations in their profession” by Dr S. W. P. Mirams, director of the Division of Mental Health.

“They must receive a higher training than we did; if they don’t we are just content to live on the capital of the past If you don’t recognise this and do something about it you add nothing to your chosen profession," said Dr Mirams at th* graduation ceremony.

“This is a much more demanding requirement than ever before because our concepts are changing with bewildering rapidity,” he said. The concept of nursing as an honourable profession was very recent and it was all too frequently overlooked that the first steps in this direction were made by psychiatric nurses.

“In 1854, six years before all the noise and fuss over Florence Nightingale, the Crighton Royal Psychiatric Hospital established a nursing system,” said Dr Mirams. An examination system and certification on completion of training were established first for nurses in psychiatry. This field was also the first in which integrated training for male and female staff was introduced.

Concern for the standards' of professional skill was one of the “collective obligations” of nurses; meeting their profession’s ethical requirements was a persona) obligation. “Today the words profession and professional are used often, and primarily for status reasons. But a profession rests on an agreed, established, and enforceable system of ethics. “There are implications in your entering into this profession which tend to be forgotten. Theoretical and technical training is an important component, but there are other more Important factors to consider,” he said. In the Anal analysis the professional person held the responsibility for his techni-

cal knowledge. He was one of a body of individuals with certain skills who subscribed to standards so important to them that they were prepared to expel anyone failing to meet their professional requirements. “Make sure your professional competence keeps pace with your skills. And remember this is a responsibility which extends into your private life,” said Dr Mirams. Graduates presented with psychiatric nursing medals

are: Mrs E. C. Cocks (honours). Miss G. I. McTague (honours), and Mrs F. J. Mulholland. Prizes were awarded to Miss M. R. Sloane, second year psychiatry; Miss L. E. Wilson, junior state examination; Miss M. M. Pender, junior state examination, and Mr W. J. Abbatt, and Mr J. A. Proudlock. Misses Sloane and Pender also gained honours. Mrs L. M. Benfell received the half-yearly community nurse’s prize.