Health care

We recently got our Ford Explorer fixed, even though there was nothing seriously wrong with it. It is never a good idea to take your vehicle to a repair shop and tell them to "look at that noise". It is going to cost you a lot of money for that look. So our bill was astronomical but what was so amazing is the cost of labor. Our labor costs for this repair were $800.00 or about $80.00/hr. I am sure that fixing my vehicle was difficult, all work is difficult. Let's put this in perspective for a minute...the decision as to what was wrong with my car was made by a machine, the repairs were nor unusual just normal repairs. The decisions going into the repairs were not life or death for the car or me. Was it worth $800.00?

Here is the perspective...I don't make $80.00/hr yet the decisions I make at work do affect people's lives. Whether I am having a good or bad night directly impacts my patients, sometimes in a big way. So is my car worth more than my patients?

So you have probably figured out we had a poor patient outcome on our unit, not because of nursing but because of the doctors. The doctors did not take the nurse or patient seriously and the consequences will be with the patient probably forever.

Health care professionals wonder why our patients don't trust us. I saw a news report on TV about the nursing shortage and the reporter gave examples of how the patient could protect themselves...from who? The nurses? The doctors? Are we out to get out patients? Apparently I missed that class in school.

I'm done rambling.