Care of nurses

Sir, We are proposing to recruit more nurses from overseas (“Bar on foreign nurses lifted”, Oct 16 ). To employ them we will be competing with the countries who have trained them and cannot afford the salaries that Britain can; surely there is an ethical issue here. The difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff in some African countries is dire and already fragile standards of care will be put at greater risk if we induce them to leave.

Dr Robert J Leeming

Balsall Common, Coventry

Sir, After 30 years of nursing, I have never read such an accurate and concise summing up of what nursing is than in Melanie Reid’s column (Oct 17). I’ve had as varied a career as Ms Reid’s recently retired nurse and have been abused and patronised in equal measure. Nurses are not “angels”; we do the job from a selfish need to be needed and, make no mistake, occasionally have some very unholy thoughts about patients and/or their relatives. A phrase I have often heard is “I couldn’t do your job”, although most members of the public have no real idea of what “our job” entails. However, Ms Reid sums it up perfectly. It is a dirty job undoubtedly, but a job like no other.