I have always been ferociously proud of our Maltese doctors, nurses and paramedics too.

Their high standards (and probably also their excellent international reputation) are to be explained not only in their personal human qualities but, above all, in the fact that professionally the vast majority of them are the product of a formation structure, for which read our national University and postgraduate work, where standards brook no corner cutting.

But now methinks I smell a worrying rat. And its name is precisely ‘drop in standards’.

I got this feeling after reading the report ‘Not enough nurses for new projects’.

When the new MUMN president starts complaining about “the University of Malta making it too difficult for nursing students to complete their course” and alleging a big number of annual dropouts, one can only ask: why blame the University?

To state that “it seems that the system is too stringent on students” and that “we need to solve this problem” is to beckon vital questions such as: how?

By a drop in the standards of teaching or in the methods of and criteria in examining?

By lowering required acquisition of practice standards before being given warrants, licences to practise, or jobs, or whatever?

I am unaware of the percentage of nursing course dropouts in Malta as well as whether the MUMN has compared nursing course dropouts with those of other faculties or even with overseas academic institutions.

This important information did not come out in the press conference given by the MUMN.

But the clear thrust that emerged is that some trade unionists seem to simply want more nurses irrespective of their academic adequacy for a vocation that requires much knowledge and high educational standards.

Are they hankering for some system where ‘everyone’ can become a ‘nurse’?