I recently visited my other half's very old, very batty grandmother in her ruralshire nursing home. Beautiful building, beautiful grounds, very good security, execrably poor "nurses". As seems to be the norm for nursing homes, all the inhabitants were sitting in chairs in a room together with no form of activity and no attention from the nurses, who seemed intent on ignoring their customers as much as possible. One poor lady clearly had a problem. She sat in her chair and made plaintive sounds, but couldn't form words. Every time a nurse whooshed past the lady reached for her, tugged at her cushion, made more plaintive sounds, and had the aura of a person in serious need of assistance. When we approached her and asked if we could help, the patient next to her told us to ignore her because she was always noisy, but we felt disinclined to do so, and bagged a nurse on her behalf the next time she passed. The nurse actually ignored us and continued on her way. Finally the poor lady's trauma came to a head: She'd needed the toilet, and finally caved in to the pressure and done so right where she sat, in a room surrounded by strangers. Suddenly a nurse paid attention - hefting her out of her seat in a very heavy-handed fashion, wiping down the seat rather than helping the customer to a more private location, and dumping her back down with a cushion under her while she was still soaked through. It's sickening enough that we dump our elderly off onto others to "care" for on our behalf. It's even more outrageous when someone whose job includes the title or implication "carer" simply doesn't. Just what persuades these people to become nurses, carers, social workers or doctors when they simply do not care?