I trained as a nurse in 1977-1979. Things were changing then and have changed dramatically since. I can't comment about the standard of nursing care, but I am aware that the hospital managers and personnel officers have stitched up the NHS over the past few decades. No-one has had the guts to start at the top and completely change the system which has suffered from severe underfunding and mismanagement. Nurses, or the lack of nurses, are a direct casualty of this. I am glad that I escaped the low morale and poor career path offered to me when I was nursing. I am now an employed barrister and very happy I am out of the system.
Tracy Winter, England

Nursing is in crisis throughout the world. We are expected to take on ever expanding roles, continue to develop and educate ourselves, yet for little financial reward and even less respect and appreciation. Vicky Peake, UK/Australia

I wonder how aware your audience is of the plight of undergraduate trainees. After achieving three good A levels, my daughter undertook the graduate route to nursing at Southampton University,. She lived like any other undergraduate - except she was not able to get a student loan! (She was only allowed half a loan beacause she is apparently entitled to a NHS bursary but this is means-tested, unlike the student loan.) Had she opted for the diploma course she would have had a monthly income. My daughter did not qualify for the bursary and nor do a lot of other undergraduate nurses and because of this she cannot qualify for a loan. She will finish her four- year degree course this summer, having had a very difficult time financially.
L Patton, England

I am appalled by the report on poaching nurses from the developing world. How can a country of such wealth (and moral attitude) allow the trade in third world nurses? Should we not be assisting these countries to keep their staff? Should we not also be paying our own trained nurses to stay where they are? How can we exploit a country like South Africa, which spends many millions which they can ill afford on staff to be sold into the financial slavery that is Britain.
Brenda Bower, UK

I am a former NHS Accident and Emergency specialist nurse and am about to start work in Australia. The trauma unit shown in the report on South Africa was very familiar to me. British emergency departments may currently see more car accidents than gun shot injuries, but in every other way they experience the same problems. I have frequently had to encourage patients

I would give up nursing in a heartbeat if I wasn't too old to retrain to do something else. It is the pits......violence, aggression, hierarchal systems, poor pay, and unsociable hours. Anonymous

with minor injuries to go home due to seven or eight-hour waits for treatment. Nursing is in crisis throughout the world. We are expected to take on ever expanding roles, continue to develop and educate ourselves, yet for little financial reward and even less respect and appreciation. Until this changes, nursing will forever remain at crisis point.
Vicky Peake, UK/Australia

To be honest, it wouldn't matter which country I was in, I would give up nursing in a heartbeat if I wasn't too old to retrain to do something else. It is the pits, and why should anyone work for years to get a nursing degree to have the pay and conditions we get when there are better jobs nowadays? Violence, aggression, hierarchal systems, poor pay, and unsociable hours. You have to request days off weeks in advance, and can't have leave over Christmas and New Year. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out, do you?
Anonymous

How can anybody believe that there is a recruitment crisis in the NHS? My daughter tried for three years to train as a nurse but was turned down. On her third attempt she was told by a hospital that the only way she would become a nurse was to do a degree course in nursing. She has now gone to college to start the course, so when she finally becomes a qualified nurse she will have spent three years trying to get a place on a training course, two years at college, and three years at university. Several nurses could have been trained in this length of time. I find it very hard to believe that there is a shortage of nurses if young people are made to study for this length of time to qualify.
Mr A Ward, England

I watched with interest on my day off your programme on "nursing in crisis". We were warned of nursing shortages many years ago, yet nothing was done.
Alan Rodel,MSc , BSc, Ba Hons, DipHe, England

I planned to spend some time in England working as a theatre nurse. With more than 13 years experience under my belt in both New Zealand and Australia, I started the registration process in July. I am still awaiting registration approval from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. No wonder there are problems in the provision of trained staff.
Lorraine Anderson, Australia

I returned to the UK after living in Los Angeles, California for 20 years. I trained and worked as a paramedic over there and I have skills that many nurses do not have here. I joined the ambulance service when I first returned here but was forced to resign in September as the stress of dealing with the red tape became too much for me. I am now working as a dental nurse and have been trying to get into university but this is also proving to be quite difficult. I am losing faith in the whole system and do not understand how the NHS can so easily bring nurses from overseas when I, a UK citizen, cannot find help to train as a nurse. In my opinion the NHS is totally buried in useless rules and needless paper work.
CJ Stenning, England

So nurses are leaving the NHS earning �19,000 a year? They should try Ambulance Service pay levels of �13,000 gross for crews and �16-18,000 for paramedics. People cannot afford to do these jobs in the South without vast amounts of overtime.
Mr Anthony Forkner, England