REGARDING your report 'Patient tried to strangle doctor' (LET, January 22), one of the main reasons why the country is unable to recruit nurses is because of the violence which is today considered to be the norm by nurses, who have to listen daily to abuse and cope with the fear of physical assault by the patients or their relatives.

Nurses working alone - community staff - are most vulnerable, but how many carry personal alarms or have a strategy in case of attack?

I work in the Mental Health Unit at Rossendale, where staff must wear personal alarm buttons and it is mandatory for them to attend a course on break-away techniques and control and restraint methods.

Is it any wonder with the lack of public support via the courts, patients' rights, increased paperwork and extended roles that we cannot recruit nursing staff?

Nurses need to feel valued. At present society doesn't, and the Government now has the opportunity to show that it values the country's nurses.

J H NUTTALL, Bacup.

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