§ 67. Mr. Woodburnasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he is satisfied that all nurses in hospitals are receiving adequate training; what proportion of entrants normally complete their training; and whether the rate of loss of married personnel is increasing.
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§ Mr. MaclayThe training of nurses is supervised by the General Nursing Council for Scotland, which has not called my attention to any failure by hospitals to maintain adequate standards. The available information suggests that about one-third of student nurses do not complete training. There are no separate figures on which the rate of loss of married personnel could be calculated.
§ Mr. Woodburnasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the proportion of fully-trained nurses is increasing or decreasing; whether there are enough fully trained nurses to fill posts of responsibility; and to what extent there has been a dilution of nursing standards by the employment of nurses not fully trained.
§ Mr. MaclayWhile the total number of fully-trained nurses in Scottish hospitals increased from 10,914 to 11,725 in the last three years, the proportion of total nursing staff this represents has fallen from 41.8 per cent. to 40.6 per cent. There is no general difficulty in filling posts of responsibility. As nursing auxiliaries do only those simpler forms of nursing work which do not require full training, there has been no dilution of nursing standards.