If there are a total of 56,155 registered nurses in the Republic, how many of them are women? If you guessed "most of them", then you're absolutely right.
According to information on the website for An Bord Altranais (www.nursingboard.ie), there are 52,284 female nurses on the register, and 3,871 males. But, that may not be entirely accurate. The latest nursing-registration statistics on the website date from the end of 1997.
So much for the web keeping us up to date. In fact, this website provides a timely reminder that information obtained from the Internet may be more out of date than information available in print form or elsewhere.
And worse was to come. After extensive searching it was surprising, and somewhat disappointing, to find that the Nursing Careers Centre, which is managed by Bord Altranais, doesn't have a section on the Bord's website, or, indeed, its own site. A telephone call to An Bord Altranais confirmed this.
The site does contain the syllabus for the education and training of student nurses but most of the valuable information contained in the Nursing Careers Centre booklet (entry for 2001) is not available online. The An Bord Altranais website falls into the "worthy but dull" category with the text on codes of conduct, policy guidelines, annual reports and so on, enlivened only by the occasional table.
There are useful Internet links to three other nursing bodies: the UK Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting, which is the statutory body in the UK (www.ukcc.org); the National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting in Northern Ireland (www.n-i.nhs.uk/NBNI); the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery (www.ncnm.ie).
The UK Central Council site is interesting, informative and fun to visit. A series of news snippets scrolls continuously on the homepage. So, on the day EL visits, we learn that breast cancer may be "a disease of affluence" with 15 per cent more cases in the least deprived areas of the UK compared with the most deprived. The reason is thought to be the later age at which well-off career women have their first child. Prostate cancer also shows a higher incidence in the more prosperous south of England but this may be influenced by the area's popularity with retired people.
Picture this: Britain's Office of National Statistics has produced a set of colour-coded maps charting the pattern of disease and death across Britain. Map colours range from mint green for the healthiest spots to magenta for the sickest.
News aside, this website has lots of info for those interested in nursing and for those already working in the health services. There is advice on the council's standards: from abuse detection to asylum-seekers to chaperones in clinical practice. But, be warned: the video clip of the advice service takes more than one minute (a lot of desk-tapping time) to download, even via a fasat connection.
The National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting for Northern Ireland last updated its news archive in autumn 1998. Not terribly useful if you're thinking of joining the profession. But it does have an index of nursing, midwifery and health-visiting research, which includes information on unpublished research.
Back in the Republic, the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery provides information on the expanded role of nurses and the two new nurse grades - nurse specialist and advanced nurse practitioner. Browsing through this site, it is possible to get some idea of where nursing is headed.
With increased opportunities to study to degree and postgraduate level, nursing practice will also change over the next few years.
Moving away from the professional bodies, the best way to use the Internet to get some idea of what nursing entails, might be to visit some hospital and health board websites (see panel below). And, if you're seriously thinking of studying nursing, you should visit the websites of the various colleges offering undergraduate nursing programmes. Don't just look at the course. Check out the facilities: the library, the canteen(s), the students union, sports halls, courts and pitches, accommodation in the area.
If you are a nurse and you've "had one of those days, good or bad" you might consider the invitation to "come, meet your friends, make new ones. For real time discussions of what's hot in nursing today visit the nursing lounge (www.nursingnet.org)."
When EL tried to enter the lounge, a technical glitch on the website intervened. However, it was possible to enjoy the jargon dictionary, which lists "accepted translations" for the abbreviations commonly used in the lounge.
It included the following: SNERT: Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager (nursing term for a younger patient?); ROFL: Rolling on Floor Laughing (useful response to query from a patient as to the waiting time in casualty); IMHO: In My Humble Opinion (consultant doing ward round); JMO: Just My Opinion (reply from ward sister).
CYA. SOTMG. :-)
