YP Letters: Surgeons would be nothing without nurses

I HAVE just read Terry Morrell’s excellent letter saying that nursing must be a vocation, not an academic discipline (The Yorkshire Post, May 19).

I agree with every word of his letter and I hope the General Nursing Council and Royal College of Nursing choose to take note.

I am a retired general surgeon. I started my career in medicine in 1956 as a hospital porter 
and assistant to the theatre 
sister in Jessop Hospital, Sheffield.

I would not have been able to do my job as a surgeon without the guidance and help of nurses in the theatre or on the wards.

A doctor has a vocation to treat patients only with the help of nurses.

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

HOW I agree with Terry Morrell that not all nurses should be graduates.

A while ago I read in the Press of a nurse who, when asked to clear a patient’s vomit, said: “I am a graduate. I don’t do sick.”