Letter: Nurses need respect

AS A DISTRICT nurse, I must respond to Catherine Pepinster's ill-informed article "Supernurses aren't what we need" (13 September).

During one day last week my patients included somebody receiving antibiotics given by me intravenously and a patient receiving chemotherapy, also given by me. I continued to teach a newly diagnosed diabetic how to administer her insulin. I shaved and bathed a terminally ill patient; dressed several wounds including diabetic leg ulcers. I set up continuous infusions of a drug to help patients with Parkinson's. I took blood pressures and treated pressure sores.

If I and my colleagues were unable to perform these duties then these patients would have to be admitted to hospital. Nurses may be more than doctors handmaidens now but is that so wrong? More job satisfaction means better patient care.

LINDA BISHOP

Cardiff