The role of nursing assistants continues to be an important and controversial issue in health care today. With the introduction of an all-graduate profession and the need for qualified nurses to take over more medical tasks and responsibilities, the need for an assistant nurse has grown more critical. Recently, they have been labelled 'auxiliary nurses' and 'health-care assistants'.Their function has always been to help nurses. Even in such conflicts as the First World War, when they formed voluntary aid detachments, they have been there to help at times of severe nurse shortage. In the past they have been variously trained and prepared for their work - from minimal hospital instruction to more formal training from organizations such as St John Ambulance, St Andrew's Ambulance and the Red Cross. Today health-care assistants are prepared within health-care organizations in a more formal and structured way, and many may well be pursuing formal qualifications through the NVQ system or foundation degree route.
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