Experienced nurses who have been out of clinical nursing for a period of time need to be made to feel wanted and welcome. They can be a great resource and deserve to be shown respect. It appears that they are being overlooked. Bonnie Carl, MBA,RN Fremont, Calif. In recent years I have noticed a drastic downgrade in the standards of nurses.
Personal appearance is nonexistent.
They arrive for duty in rumpled scrubs, dirty shoes, stringy hair. Their deportment is bad as they gather outside an ER or OR, laughing and talking loudly regardless of the patients nearby. The way germs are transmitted is ignored. Or sitting on the charting desk and putting a foot up to tie a shoe. There are ill-trained or untrained nurses brought into the operating room who have no concept of sterile techniques.