Independent Nurse: Nursing is like the England football team.

If I suggested that the nursing profession is like the England football team, how would you feel?

Unless we were talking about the hugely successful women's national football team, you would probably tend to be insulted: the England football team's usual trajectory is major hype; games; struggle; win some; lose some; major criticism and despair amongst pundits, followed by more hype. The fact that every team wins and loses; that players play well one day and poorly the next; and that overall, we are one of the top teams in the world, seems to pass people by.

It is much the same with the reputation of nursing. We have scored some spectacular own goals and thrown away …