What Makes a Good Nurse

Those of us who are lucky enough to have friends who are nurses know that, in broad terms, it is the character qualities that we admire in them that go towards making them good nurses. Similarly, those of us who are lucky enough to have been taken care of and treated by nurses know that the admirable character qualities (or ‘virtues’) of these nurses are absolutely central to what makes them good nurses – it is about ‘who they are’ and not just ‘what they do’. Yet, as Derek Sellman shows in this book, and helps us understand in the pages that follow, there is a serious ‘disconnect’ between these familiar personal judgements and so much of the educational, managerial and even professional language of nursing. o ne key symbol of this disconnect is the fact that, although in the UK (at least) a ‘declaration of good character’ signed by an assessor is required before someone can be registered as a nurse, comparatively little thought goes into such a signature (and into consideration of what such a declaration means) and nearly all of the substantial thought and care that rightly goes into the education and assessment of prospective nurses is invested elsewhere.