Alexa - not old, I'm 46 - but old school I'd say.
Agedknees - with me it's my back is definitely about 90! 
guess why?!
It was a diploma I had first then with further study made up into a degree so I do actually have a degree. But yes even since that training I think the quality of training has deteriorated.
NOT bashing nurses - but yes bashing poor training and recruitment parameters.
With ref to my friend that's now in a senior/mentoring role, recruitment is something she despairs of.
That women are being accepted for nurse training who don't have the aptitude or vocation - because it IS a vocation - or the compassion for patients.
I realise that this is partly due to a lack of applicants, which is highly likely to be largely due to the loss of the bursary, and appalling pay once qualified, frozen pay etc because let's be honest it's largely wc women who go into nursing.
Women who can't afford to take a risk and who desperately need supported financially to complete extremely demanding training to then go into an even more demanding job!
Instead my friend is finding that she is dealing with a significant minority who think that having a degree excuses them from the (literal sometimes) shitwork! That its beneath them!
They don't see or understand that actually to have a patient trust you to touch them when they're in pain, to see them undignified in appearance and behaviour, and yes trust you to wipe their bum because they can't! Is a privilege NOT an insult! It's that attitude that's being lost.
Regarding my relatives in all but the situation with the meals not being fed directly it was registered nurses.
In that case hca's were distributing the meals but NOT feeding the patients BUT they were acting as directed (or not) by registered nurses.
Drs and rn's would've contributed to their assessments of need and they should have put feeding instructions in place (my gran couldn't even manage solids because her dentures couldn't go in due to facial paralysis then a long term spasm from the stroke and yet she was being given to eat things like chips, roast chicken, broccoli - when she needed a soft diet request with supported and carefully monitored feeding, personally I'd have decided upon a soft cutlery order too (seriously don't get me started - she also went IN with healthy skin and was DISCHARGED with multiple bed sores. it was a fucking farce!)
Nurses have a bloody difficult job, if they're let down right at the beginning by shit training that makes it a damn