title: I don't need a degree to know how to be a good nurse.
abstract: I recently returned home after caring for a patient who had been neither shaved nor adequately fed for 12 days. I returned home to a daughter who had been refused entry to do a nursing degree at university because her grades were not ABB. I didn't need a degree to ask my patient if he normally had a beard, to encourage him to order breakfast or to find out that he didn't want to be any trouble and, due to a fractured arm, could not feed or shave himself.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D006113:United Kingdom