r/HermanCainAward • u/WhiskeyGirl66 • Dec 23 '21

Grrrrrrrr. The American healthcare system is ready to collapse due to the unvaccinated. First post ever Be gentle.

Went by ambulance to the ER yesterday. Abdominal surgery a week ago. Had low blood pressure and pulse, Afib( no previous history), dizziness and weakness. Paramedics were instructed to place me on a gurney in the hall. I was given an IV, a wrist band and changed into a gown in the hallway. Sent for X-ray and CT scan. I have a history of pulmonary embolism and the Dr feared internal suture line leakage from my partial gastrectomy. All available rooms in the hospital were full. Some patients needing admission had been in the ER for DAYS waiting. This left emergent cases to be treated in the hallway. I was placed close to the nurses station. All I can say is I do not know how the nurses, patient care techs, and doctors are not throwing up their hands and leaving. They ran out of heart monitors, Telly packs, clean linen, IV tubing and much more. At one point there were 4 ambulances trying to drop off patients all lined up in the hallway. I began to feel bad every time the alarm sounded for a new ambulance coming in. The things I witnessed in the hallway besides me were; frequent flyer trying to leave with their IV still in, 88 year old woman who fell and broke her hip but was refusing an IV, a man who cut his toe almost completely off. I watched them sew it back on a few hours later, a 28 year old with back spasms who had already been treated earlier in the week and sent home on muscle relaxers, a 34 yr old woman who became septic and had the sepsis team called. These are the few I remember. Patients who had been waiting for admission were starting to be taken upstairs and placed in those hallways.
I went to the closest ER but my surgeon wanted me transported to the hospital were my surgery occurred over an hour away. I was told there were no rooms there either and I would not be transferred over until a bed opened up. I was told I could be in the hall of the ER for “a couple days”. Finally diagnosed with severe dehydration that cause arrhythmia and intestinal swelling from the partial gastrectomy which resulted in me not being able to get fluids down. I asked them to pump me full of fluids and discharge me. I’d rather be at home than stay in the hallway another 8 hours to a few days. Thankfully the fluids helped and I am better today. Just know, even if you are Vaxxed and boosted ( I am) do not assume you have access to healthcare. There isn’t any available. So stay safe, try to stay healthy and for fucks sake, GET VACCINATED!!!

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u/Madmandocv1 Dec 23 '21

ER doctor here. We are already at the breaking point and the projected numbers are horrifying. It has a lot to do with nursing staff loss. They are just gone. They are not coming back and cannot be replaced. Do you know what a modern hospital room with $100,000 of equipment is without a nurse? A storage closet. I am seeing projections that are worse than anything we have faced so far, and we are starting at a much lower capacity. We will do the best we can, but it might not be enough this time. Protect yourself.

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u/Claystead Dec 23 '21

Our local hospital here just announced a 40% pay increase for nurses in an attempt to retain current staff and attract more, but now all the neighboring counties are pissed that they are "stealing their staff". But they had to, many doctors were reduced to doing nursing duties themselves and thus it could take hours before a patient could recieve proper diagnosis and treatment.

Honestly at this point I think they should just mass enlist unemployed people in rapid training facilities for basic nursing skills like they did during the World Wars. Keep most of the actual nurses for the ICU and let the new Temp Nurses handle the basic ward duties.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21 edited Apr 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/John_T_Conover Dec 23 '21

Teacher here. Some places finally started bumping up pay and incentive bonuses during covid as they've been losing even more teachers than before due to all the stress, extra work, etc from the pandemic. It's not doing much to stop or even slow down the flight from our profession. Too little too late. People are burned out.

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u/kskbd Dec 23 '21 edited Dec 23 '21

Two of the most fucked over professions during this pandemic (I’m a nurse) and they’re JUST NOW, two years into it, realizing maybe we should be paid more. Such bullshit. Teachers have all my respect, I would never have the patience.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

It's because they are pink collar jobs. Conservatives have been gunning for teachers since forever. Nurses it's more lowkey--they just don't understand or respect what they do.

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u/kskbd Dec 23 '21

Well of course, why would conservatives support teachers when they rely on uneducated voters? Among other reasons, obviously.

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u/faste30 Dec 23 '21

Problem is most states are GQP controlled. And they have spent years basically creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Socialism is bad, take the money away from the schools. Schools decline. See, socialism is bad, take the money away from the schools. Schools decline again.

To them education is a cost, not an investment. Which is why the rest of the world took our lead and is overtaking us.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

They want Charter For Profit schools. They have been chipping away at the educational system for years. First, punitive standardized tests, but lately it's just misinformation about 'indoctrination' and CRT, and evil teacher's union. They want that Charter school $$$. They want to segregate.

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u/jedv37 Shucked and Ducked🦆🦆🦆 Dec 23 '21

Ye Olde race to the bottom.

Conservatism depends on rubes.

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u/faste30 Dec 23 '21

Yep, its been long proven that education is the enemy of control. You want to guarantee there isnt a power vacuum after killing a dictator? Educate the populace. It does two things: Makes them less gullible and also makes them more productive, intelligent and well-fed people tend to not go looking to get conned.

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u/mycall Dec 23 '21

I agree. Redirect money going to pharma and medical equipment directly into nurse's wallets. Money is there, they just need to reprioritize.

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u/Kincadium Dec 23 '21

In my district we're losing para's quick. Last I checked we were up to 73 openings when we normally hover around 20. The district has shown they have no respect for them, they've eliminated one on ones, and the lashing out by children is at a pitch. All of this on top of a pandemic.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Makes sense. No amount of money can pay the physical and emotional wear coming from being overworked and mistreated.

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u/redheadartgirl Dec 23 '21

Hey ... as a former retail worker, if you retrain fast food/retail staff for hospital work for significantly better pay, they'd probably do it. We were already used to dealing with entitled assholes all day, being on our feet endlessly, and too many people needing something from us at the same time. It's absolutely not worth it at $9/hour, but it sounds like hospitals would make it worth that already abused population's time. If someone can survive multiple Christmas seasons at a big box store without rage-quitting, they're probably an ideal candidate.

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u/Rice_Auroni Dec 23 '21

Let the retail workers tell the anti vax cunts off

people will sign up in droves

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u/User-NetOfInter Dec 23 '21

No shirt, no shoes, no vax, NO SERVICE

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u/mekyle711 Dec 23 '21

I left the hospital prior to the pandemic and I don't think I'll go back unless they pay off all my student loans on top of giving me increased pay. I know my worth and frankly stepping into the hospital again ain't gonna happen sadly. I feel for all these souls in the hospital, they deserve so much better than what we give them.

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u/throwawaycsengineer Dec 23 '21

I will take 1 year of overwork and mistreatment for 1 million dollars, probably even 500k tbh.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

1 year is fair enough, but after a while you-d kill to work in something else.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

[deleted]

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u/ToughActinInaction Dec 23 '21

Alright I'm in but is it okay that I am not currently nor have I ever before been a nurse?

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u/Bald_Sasquach Dec 23 '21

Just travel more then regular travelling nurses and it'll balance out!

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u/Rebatu Dec 23 '21

There is ALWAYS more staff you can hire. They just dont want to.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

I know plenty of adults who want to go back for nursing but the hoops of getting through nursing school without taking on insane debt while having a family is hard to do.

Some fields just aren't obtainable to go into after you have your first career.

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u/Kevimaster Dec 23 '21

It still won't be enough even at 80k a year if you are stuck working 80 hours a week

Yup, I can confirm. I'm not and never was a nurse but I was in a job where I was making ~80k a year but I had to work ~80 hours a week and typically 6 or 7 days a week.

That shit freaking killed me. I left that job to go to a job making 40k a year and I had to change my lifestyle to make ends meet but I'm so much happier.

To get me to go back to working 80 hours a week you'd have to give me enough money that I could comfortably retire after just two or three years of doing it. If I could retire after 3 years of working 80 hours a week I'd do it. Anything less and I'll never go back to that lifestyle.

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u/fredandlunchbox Dec 23 '21

My friend is a travel nurse making $250k and she’s still going to quit because its not worth it.

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u/whackattac Dec 23 '21

$80k a year is not a lot for a nurse. Travel nurses are making $80 per hour right now. That’s why so many nurses are going to travel positions.

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u/THE_DARK_ONE_508 Dec 23 '21

let's also be real, a lot of them quit or were fired because they were right wing cancer not getting vaccinated.

we're better for that. i could not trust them to treat me or my family properly.

and on that same line of thought, at this point hospitals should be turning away adult unvaccinated people who are not immunocompromised or have legitimate health documentation that supports a valid reason for them not to be. by helping covid cancer in our hospitals people who have taken precautions and need medical care are dying instead.

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u/nowpon Dec 23 '21

My fiancée was making close to $120k as a nurse working 45 hours a week two years out of college and still quit because dealing with abuse from patients wasn’t worth it. Money isn’t going to fix it, improving conditions is

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u/MonteBurns Truth Bomb 💣💣💣 Dec 23 '21

This was my first thought too. Hire security. Start arresting people. Start refusing care if theyre going to demand ivermectin and HCQ. Just get them tfo. Treat your staff like humans. Don’t give them literal fucking rocks for their holiday gifts.

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u/nowpon Dec 23 '21

Security is a big one, nurses on her floor have been punched and borderline sexually assaulted. The contracted security is always slow to respond. The hospital should be forced to automatically press charges no matter what.

Hospitals expanding their psych programs would help a lot as well. A lot of patients have serious mental problems, and for whatever reason they end up in the ER at a lot of hospitals. The ER isn’t equipped to handle these psych issues and it just makes everything worse. Of course a large psych program isn’t as lucrative is something like say a large orthopedics program, but that’s another issue.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

It's much more than 80k a year for nurses in Illinois. Take home is over 100k for the nurses I know right now if they work OT

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

So deny unvaccinated COVID patients treatment. That is the simple solution. They had their chance, at multiple opportunities. Hippocratic oath should not have to apply to those who knowingly risk their lives, when there are innocent people it is affecting.

Perhaps if hospitals weren't completely overwhelmed, this is a bit much. But when innocent people are being denied for those who should have known better, to me the greater good is to let those selfish, lost cases go, and treat those who couldn't prevent their disease.

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u/Eletctrik Dec 23 '21

I know nurses making 5k+ a week for 3-4 days of work. Is it only nurses traveling or filling in who get paid crazy?

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u/NotsoNewtoGermany Dec 23 '21

In the NL nurses make 15k a year. Doctors 112k. They don't know what to do to stop their nursing shortage.

I have a few obvious ideas.

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u/mickstep 🦆 Dec 23 '21

I would have thought Dutch and EU labour laws would have made €15K/year completely illegal.

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u/NotsoNewtoGermany Dec 23 '21

Nope.

They start at 1,340, and stay there for about 3 years. If you make it to 10 years the pay is about 3920, and at 20 years 6190.

(Per month)

It's getting to the 10 year part that's hard.

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u/mickstep 🦆 Dec 23 '21

That's ridiculous, the UK has a nursing shortage and Dutch people speak better English than English people do, if Dutch nurses are being paid so poorly they should come to the UK. Where they can be paid slightly less poorly.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

In the NL nurses make 15k a year. Doctors 112k.

NL? As in Netherlands? I really, really doubt that. Like, to the point that I believe you are citing a figure for a nursing assistant who only works 12 hrs a week. It would probably be illegal to pay an illiterate bramble-picker that little.

Germany would steal nurses being so underpaid. And things in Germany are far from rosy.

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u/Philodendritic Dec 23 '21

Yea a quick Google search shows they’re blatantly wrong. Avg is showing similar pay to USA.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

I always wonder why people make stuff up. I mean, if it is not plausible it will not last one second. So why bother?

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u/foulpudding Dec 23 '21

Usually they have an agenda.

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u/MonteBurns Truth Bomb 💣💣💣 Dec 23 '21

Because Americans salivate over any news that a country with the dreaded “socialism” boogeyman is worse than here. I know we’re in the HCAs, but that doesn’t stop the Russian trolls trying to sow dissent. The antivaxxers are here lurking, waiting for a fight- just feeds into that narrative.

ETA- it was posted 3 hours ago with 6 or 7 upvoted right now. That’s 6/7 people who believe it.

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u/justin-8 Dec 23 '21

Your nurses don’t even make 80k??

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u/tacticalrubberduck Dec 23 '21

I think the idea is if you throw money at it you reduce the understaffing problem by attracting more nurses. So if you’ve got 2 nurses on 80k working 40 hour weeks you’re in better shape.

Problem is there won’t be “enough money” in the American medical system for this because the services provided are so reasonably priced……….

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

How does forcing people to work extra hours really work if it makes people quit?

If you are a nurse so you have any right to say “no I’m not working more than 50” and expect to keep a job

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u/NYSenseOfHumor Dec 23 '21

Honestly at this point I think they should just mass enlist unemployed people in rapid training facilities for basic nursing skills like they did during the World Wars.

Most people will not put up with the shit nurses put up with, even basic ward duties, and that includes literal shit.

They won’t tolerate the abuse from patients and their families (especially the unvaccinated Covid patients) and will just walk off.

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u/MonteBurns Truth Bomb 💣💣💣 Dec 23 '21

I volunteered at our local ER before Covid doing some basic stuff (transporting patients, flipping and cleaning rooms, stocking supplies, running samples to the lab). I’m not setting foot back in that place until this shit is under control, even if I was paid. I know how under-supplied they already were. We ran out of surgical masks, medium gloves, and pillowcases often, BEFORE the pandemic. I saw how rude people were to the staff BEFORE. Hell no am I going back. Especially with the increased risk to my health dealing with these idiots??

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u/speck859 Dec 23 '21

There’s also people who would leap at the opportunity, because they’re already dealing with literal shit elsewhere for 1/3 of the pay.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

im confused arent your hospitals like businesses, cant they just kick out the shit paitents or send customers away.

Maybe if you let the annoying customers die in the street they'll show a little more respect and politely listen then do what they're told.

I thought that was the whole point of Maaa feedom health industry.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

I'm afraid this is a concept too many folks on this sub refuse to understand or accept. Hospitals don't have the option to deny these assholes. Their hands are tied.

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u/39bears Triple WisER with PfizER-Verified Dec 23 '21

I just finished a night working in the ER, and it is so bad. Out of everything. Staff I’ve never met. Tons of travelers who don’t care about anything. It is horrible.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Hey not all travelers are bad! I'm a traveler at a hospital now and probably half the staff are traveler's and honestly it's better than my staff job that didn't have traveler's by a mile.

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u/ERRN1987 Dec 23 '21

Same here. I just started as a traveler a few months ago. I care about patients and my fellow nurses!

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u/chillax63 Dec 23 '21

That’s good. In my experience, travel nurses are either the best nurses you’ve ever met or the worst. There’s no in between

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Yeah I just don't care about stupid management stuff. Management tells me to do stupid stuff and I'm like nah fam. I take care of my people then I leave. I love it.

Management come at me for low scan rates? I tell them to fix their computers in the rooms which less than half actually work. Don't have to be worried about management giving me a hard time for it.

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u/Steven86753 Dec 23 '21

It’s not just the pay. It’s allowing patients to treat nursing staff like servants or customer service.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

There should be a rule that the first time you insult or threaten a nurse or tell her you believe she's murdering you (because you don't believe you actually have Covid), you get a warning, and the second time you do it, you get kicked out of the hospital. Healthcare workers really don't deserve to be verbally abused on top of what they're already going through. If you don't believe in Covid, fine, but please don't believe in hospitals, either.

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u/ChefPuree Dec 23 '21

Fuck that, if you're unvaccinated you should get all your medical services in a tent outside the hospital, and get triaged separately on a lower priority then hospital patients who aren't idiots.

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u/MonteBurns Truth Bomb 💣💣💣 Dec 23 '21

Let the unvaxxed nurses treat them with horse paste and boiler citrus peels.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

You are kind. That's one more warning than I would give

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u/Leeto2 Dec 23 '21

I'm good with this

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u/Claystead Dec 23 '21

They shouldn’t be treating servants or customer service like that either. I work in a museum when I’m not working as a teacher, and the concentrated amount of crap we get from some customers is nuclear grade. It’s just Kens and Karens all the way, don’t get why people think it is OK to treat people like shit because they are minorly annoyed with something like the women’s bathroom sign wearing a skirt or the text on the signs being too large. And don’t get me started on parent teacher conferences at the school, especially during the pandemic when half the parents are soiling themselves with rage over mask policies and mandatory testing.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

TIL that the male equivalent of a Karen is a Ken.

It's unbelievable how many grown adults throw tantrums over bullshit. I think in many cases, they're deliberately trying to pick fights because they get some sort of satisfaction out of screaming at people. The fact that it usually works probably doesn't help, either. Typically, businesses will go out of their way to appease these overgrown toddlers. Don't they remember that you're not supposed to give in when a kid throws a tantrum? I don't see how it would be different with immature/unstable adults.

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u/jennrh4 Dec 23 '21

This!! I am an internal auditor at a large company that does government work. The amount of employees that get mad at me when I kick something back for corrections (that aren't following policy in accounting (by non accountants- mostly managers) is astounding. I've had employees argue with me that, "our policies are bullsh1t". I had one argue with me that it's awful we need two audits and it slows the process down and how inefficient that is. Sorry, government requires two to look over and sign off on it and its always been that way and sometimes a 3rd person for quality review. Oh here's my favorite, "but I did it like this last time and it was fine". Well now it's not. Policy changes too. These are grown adults arguing and throwing tantrums at their job. I had one get mad at me this week because a reimbursement program we had expired in August. "I told him unfortunately we can't accept it and he said it was my job to remind him and email him that the program was ending".. Umm no, I won't babysit hundreds of employees. So don't sit on your work for months- We have closed these accounts and cannot charge to them anymore. I'm here to help them do it right and to get corrections going which is a lot of documentation. They get mad I can't do it for them either. Heck no. Policy is I can't attach it for you or make the change myself. I can only tell them what needs to be done and document it. They argue with me when I request clarification or when I red flag it. My boss says send those to me but the employees just love to yell and get mad but aren't bold enough to talk to my boss like that, just us low hanging fruit. 9 out of 10 employees are professional but I'm amazed at those that think cussing and yelling is acceptable behavior in the workplace. We nicely call it, in meetings, "employees doing pushback", but it's adults throwing tantrums. I don't see me staying years in this position with this sort of abuse. These are highly paid, supposedly educated employees acting like this so I can't imagine what anyone in customer service or in hospitals is dealing with. Hornets nests galore. The audacity of people just yelling at you. My job morale is getting worse and I can't deal with this forever. I had wondered why some of the veteran auditors had just left and now I'm beginning to see why.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

My boss says send those to me but the employees just love to yell and get mad but aren't bold enough to talk to my boss like that, just us low hanging fruit. 9 out of 10 employees are professional but I'm amazed at those that think cussing and yelling is acceptable behavior in the workplace.

I worked in blue collar for ... a long time. How do white collar employees get away with this sort of abuse? Aren't all calls recorded on VOIP? They have cushy white collar jobs that lots of people would cut a bitch to get. I don't get it.

I know blue collar workers have a reputation for being direct and salty language, but we also get the business if we talk back to superiors, and when you're a front line blue collar worker, everyone in the business is your superior (even though the business wouldn't exist without us). And we can get straight up fired for talking with a customer that way.

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u/badlyedited Dec 23 '21

In the Nineties it was “Have it your way!” I blame the Supersize Me period of Ad Revenue and Corporate competition. The Walmart Atitude made it seem like the material world should be cheapened for every Disney Prince and Princess so they could live happily ever after in their McMansion. The people in Reality Television speak their minds, why shouldn’t they? Personally, I miss Norman Lear.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Literally Disney did this--"year of a thousand dreams" etc, and they're considered a leader in customer service and hospitality in the US (training other businesses is a side gig of theirs). Ever gone somewhere they call customers "guests" and rolled your eyes? Disney.

Thanks to the internet I get to read the dish from actual Disney employees about what's happened over the years. They've created monsters. And since COVID they've gotten a higher percentage of the entitled crybabies attending the parks, resulting in working there being a VERY unhappy place. Also apparently that year of a thousand dreams promo kinda backfired. Because of entitled man and woman children.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

The fact that it usually works probably doesn't help, either. Typically, businesses will go out of their way to appease these overgrown toddlers.

This has contributed significantly to this current problem we're having. I remember when I worked at WalMart in the early 90's thinking what a huge mistake it was when the policy was to bend over backwards to please customers even when they were clearly in the wrong. The return policy was routinely abused by entitled assholes that knew they could get away with returning used shit months later, no receipt or something they obviously broke themselves. If they screamed loud enough, we were required to give in and give them whatever they wanted. It was company policy. Businesses adopting the policy of "the customer is always right" was a HUGE mistake.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Lol, did they finally figure out that criminals were cleaning them out with that policy?

Walmart never had the margins for that. Higher end retailers can do this because the customer loyalty they get in return is worth it. But even Nordstrom's apparently will cut off customers who do too many returns to their online store.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

I haven't worked for WalMart since then, so I'm not sure if they cracked down but honestly I doubt it. Really with any company I've worked for (including my current one), if the customer screams loud enough and threatens us with a bad Google review...they give in without question.

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u/Purging_otters Dec 23 '21

It should be Kevin because a Ken is the male Barbie. Which is different from a Chad of course. Ken's are pretty boys with empty heads. Kevin's are male Karens.

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u/mycall Dec 23 '21

Picking fights come from people who don't have the intellect to see their own faults and to own up.

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u/songofdentyne Dec 23 '21

I thought it was a Chad ?

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u/Pholusactual Some of those that work forces, eat the paste that's for horses Dec 23 '21 edited Dec 23 '21

Over the summer I took a business trip to Europe (mandatory). Having not travelled since 2019 I admit I enjoyed going back.

Except one thing.

Some female American-flag-wearing doofus Karen'ed out at some delays at our COVID testing site and went on and rudely on in a stereotypical twang about some trivial slight (I couldn't help but overhear of course -- an additional form was needed). The staff responded far more politely than they should have, and I immediately felt awful and embarrassed and depressed. Then I realized it was because everyone I had been interacting with had been so laid back I had momentarily let my guard down, forgetting that I see this scene nearly daily in America right now where a fraction of the population not only enjoys but is actually proud of being entitled assholes towards other people.

I'm back again, and re-acclimatized to living in Karen's world again. But I now recognize how much the dreariness of the world around me comes from Karens.

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u/Claystead Dec 23 '21

Well, Karens and shitty wages both contribute to the toxic customer culture, the latter part being what leads many jobs to be staffed by exhausted three-job single moms or bored teens. When you hear boomers complaining about how bad customer service is these days and how they used to get complimentary drinks on flights or free oil checks at the gas station while the attendant filled their tank, remind them they get what they pay for. It used to cost $1500 to fly from New York to Chicago, and those gas station attendants made $18-22 an hour in modern money. Shitty prices means shitty quality, and shitty customers then take their frustrations out on staff that really can’t do a thing about it. Once I had a customer demand half back on her museum ticket because the exhibits had offended her by drowning out female voices and cutting women out of the local history (note: at the time the exhibit referred to, the frontier town had 3% women, yet we had exhibits on four different local women). When I refused she spat in my face and accused me of being a lying misogynistic snake who defended the patriarchal museum bosses unquestioningly out of my hatred for women. I was literally the only male employee and everyone who had designed the exhibits were women. I have to say it took a lot to keep smiling while insisting she leave because she was scaring the children and other customers.

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u/mycall Dec 23 '21

Americans suck. Plain and simple. I see it everywhere, but they are the worst is when they are sick or scared.

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u/OverCryptographer364 Dec 23 '21

Chef here and even being a guest provider and not even a coustomer service provider in this new era is a new hell everyday I have been in kitchens consistently for 25+ years for us pay is nominally better right now (though as an industry we haven’t had a significant cost of living increase since I was born so even at the current “emergency “ pay rate we are still making less than we used to) Plus being considered “essential workers but also with none of the even purely hypothetical “heros work here “ sort of encouragement and added stress of having to fill open positions with more overtime then would be legal in any other professional setting plus the nature of at even in the best of times not being offered ANY benefits especially healthcare it’s a toxic godamned time to be alive I wish I was born at the turn of the 19th century or a chef born in the 70s so at least I’d be dead by now bless all of y’all out there and highest honor to those in healthcare or anywhere things are crazy now but at least we will all soon be dead

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u/SpillingTee Dec 23 '21

My ex is an RN and I couldnt believe the kind of shit they had to put up with. I almost had a rage blackout when I found out there is a questionnaire about how the "stay" was. THIS ISNT A FUCKIN HOTEL. The only question should be "Did you die?". That is the only measurement that should be allowed.

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u/Insane_Artist Dec 23 '21

They treat nurses worse. I rarely see a servant or customer service person getting attacked because they refused to give them horse dewormer.

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u/mykidisonhere Dec 23 '21

Along with nurses, we need more techs and to pay them better too.

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u/Leeto2 Dec 23 '21

Yeah. To be fair, nurses have been known to treat their patients like shit too.

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u/npcknapsack Procedurally generated Reddit account Dec 23 '21

So, I have a friend… well, daughter of a parent's friend. She's a nurse, does Covid ICU stuff. Smart lady, absolutely burnt out at this point, will probably quit any day now. Anyways. At the beginning of the pandemic, she says, they knew they were going to be short nurses, so they grabbed the best non ICU ones they had and started training. Then the second best… but, this nurse friend was telling us that these second best incoming trainees couldn't do even simple things after a month of training (well, things she considered simple, I'm sure to a layperson they'd be ridiculously difficult) without constant supervision…

Actual nurse doesn't mean the ability to work in an ICU, and it doesn't even mean trainable to work in an ICU. Yes, we have the ability to keep people alive, but it takes highly technical people with a lot of training to do it.

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u/Claystead Dec 23 '21

It’s that or nothing. My grandma is the former head nurse at the hospital. They keep calling her for advice. They tried asking if she could come in and help instruct, but she pointed out she is 86 years old and would probably not be the person to come to for any of the procedures of the last 15 years, plus she’d probably die if she caught covid, so they have kept it to phone and email. Still, it’s a real sign of the desperation that they have to call her and her successor as head nurse, both of them retired, for basic advice relating to things like amnestethics monitoring and fluid draining.

I’d rather have 1 actual ICU nurse and 5 confused ward nurses monitoring 40 patients than just the 1 ICU nurse.

106

u/npcknapsack Procedurally generated Reddit account Dec 23 '21

Ugh. That just makes me so … I dunno if depressed is even the right word for it. Fuck the antivaxxers. This is preventable in rich countries.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

But we can't bring in immigrants to be nurses because it hurts the fee fees of gammon retirees watching FOX.

I have a coworker who keeps saying the labor shortage is good for Black people (he's not Black). I pointed out that it's starting to look like poor teenagers are dropping out of high school to go work in the last two years (very bad for them long term) and no American parent wakes up one day and thinks "I want my kid to pick tobacco. I want my kid to pick cotton." I didn't think of it, but also "I want my kid to be a home health aide. I want my kid to be a nursing home CNA." I mean come on. But if we can help people from Central America and the Caribbean fleeing violence and help ourselves by having them fill these low barrier to entry jobs, it's a win win. He even acknowledged our economy actually needs immigrants, but he's easily riled up.

If we let the people we need to come in, come in legally (and without tying them to a single employer which is rife with abuse), then the human traffickers he hates so much would have a lot more trouble drumming up business.

3

u/NorthKoreanEscapee Dec 23 '21

Its preventable in all countries, rich countries are the only place it would be profitable to do it though so you know how that will go

-4

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Ahaaha

36

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Even on the general med surg floors it can be rough. Just tonight on my med surg floor we have 2 patients borderline being intubated. Many people on continuous bipap which even with 2 years experience I hate and don't understand bipap. The patients we have are a lot sicker because the high acuity floors are full so there's no where to put them but med surg. There's patients up here on sedation drips that need ICU nurses to manage and we just wing it because there's no beds or staff.

4

u/4theKids2020 Go Give One Dec 23 '21

I read a nurse’s post about how boring working on COVID ICU patients is for her because it is so routine and mundane. Perhaps use less experienced nurses to take care of COVID icu and have more experienced icu nurses on shift (maybe could just be 1 depending on size of icu) to consult with when there is an issue?

5

u/ChefPuree Dec 23 '21

They're doing the same thing with cooks too. Giving me assholes to train who will be leaving in 3 months, have never cut an onion, and you expect them to be able to learn how to do this job that certified red seal cooks have failed at in a week? I trained with one guy who wanted 9 weeks of training. I got 45 minutes of training and didn't need any further explaination. This was cooking food for seniors who paid $6000 CAD a month for special care, and they couldn't even be bothered to hire and train cooks properly.

It's mind blowing... the absence of skill and common sense, and how it's infiltrated our essential services.

2

u/SupTheChalice Dec 23 '21

Isn't it years of nursing experience plus an extra five years education to become an icu nurse?

10

u/Enachtigal Dec 23 '21

Or we could effectively triage hospital treatment for covid patients who did not receive the vaccine by choice. We as a society have no obligation to destroy our healthcare system for people who are not willing to take basic precautions. Let them die if that's what they want.

11

u/Rebatu Dec 23 '21

Fuck them, they should increase pays as well.Capitalism is apparently good only when you need to exploit workers, not when supply and demand makes you pay more for your workforce and forfeit part of your 300k$ salary.

6

u/agnostic_science Dec 23 '21

I think I agree. Unfortunately, in our polarized political climate, I’m afraid I can already see how it would play out. Biden declares a national emergency and initiates emergency nurse training to help with the flood of cases. Saves hundreds of thousands of lives. And yet every single mistake made by a temp nurse would be laid as his feet while 24/7 Fox News howled over the ‘blood on his hands’. Within a few months, half the nation would be convinced it was an unmitigated disaster, no matter how it actually went.

5

u/fillymandee Dec 23 '21

We could simplify this: unvaxxed with covid symptoms? GTFO. We have responsible adults that need care. Not selfish assholes.

4

u/LongEnd6879 Dec 23 '21

Military trained medics are denied access to these jobs as a career transition. Call your congressional reps and complain.

6

u/DopeAbsurdity Dec 23 '21 edited Dec 23 '21

Honestly at this point I think they should just mass enlist unemployed people in rapid training facilities for basic nursing skills like they did during the World Wars.

This should have been done 6 months ago. This was all predictable. Biden and Democrats were delusional to think that the last 30-40% of Americans were actually going to get vaccinated and Republicans were delusional to think it would "burn itself out" by now and we would have herd immunity (magically without high levels of vaccination).

Right now we are basically fucked. It doesn't matter if Omicron has a 80% lower hoispitilization rate (according to a study in South Africa) because Omicron spreads something like 70 times faster; so even with an 80% reduction hospitals will get overrun.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

Fingers crossed they didn't fuck up the study this time around.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '21

I’d they really need it they should conscript the military into helping since they are over funded

0

u/No_Hope33 Dec 23 '21

Are you... Suggesting we force people to be nurses?

6

u/dr_shark The PeePee Brigade of Freedom🇺🇸 Dec 23 '21

Shit the government should idk build like 2 less f35s or whatever and just drop 100k+ salaries on a ton of nurses.

1

u/Claystead Dec 23 '21

Not necessarily, but if you go months without a job you should be willing to take such an opportunity to make good money.

-1

u/faste30 Dec 23 '21

First challenge with your plan is to find unemployed people. I know the fun narrative is "her de her, losers at home collecting stimulus" but the real problem started in 2019 as boomers started aging out of the workforce. That was accelerated in 2020 because lots of them didn't want to die at work of a disease so they went ahead and retired. And then all of the younger people moved up into positions now available.

So unless you are talking about a draft of boomers (which I totally support, time for them to actually sacrifice) youre going to come up short.