I found this post at The Conversation by Rayna M Letourneau on the problems facing the nursing profession interesting and informative.
I don’t really have anything additional to say about it. I think Ms. Letourneau calls out some interesting issues. I don’t have any solutions. IMO COVID-19 has aggravated problems that have been brewing for a long time.
My view on nursing will be a bit different since I have worked for nurses, alongside them as an equal, as their supervisor and as their employer. There really are a lot that live up to the best stereotypes. I am lucky to have a lot of those working for me. However, they are still people and there are a lot who are lazy, sloppy and just pure mercenaries. They want to do as little work as possible for the most money and pt care is not important.
So what the author says has some truth in some places. Mostly it is chronic complaining. They all work too hard, dont make enough money, have burnout, etc. Reality is that this just isn’t true for everyone and nurses often have it better than other staff.
So it really is this pandemic, especially the current surges, that are pushing people over the edge. We could have pretty much been done with this. We could have just had an occasional admission or small outbreaks that really were not a burden. Instead we have people who are already pretty beat up getting hit again. It certainly helped me make the decision that I need to retire. Besides the endless barrage of pts, missing lots of sleep at night I really am tired of listening to some ass hole tell me that covid is a hoax, we should be using HCQ or whatever the current fad drug is or getting lectured about why the vaccines dont work. Like I really need multiple people, this has happened more than once, tell me how they did their own research or read stuff on places that tell them the truth. Most of these people have zero background or education in physiology, virology, pharmacology, infectious disease, etc, but they are goddamn experts now. Oh, and since we have satisfaction scores I have to be really nice to them while I get lectured.
Steve
I think you are correct, steve, that the pandemic has been the last straw for many.
In perspective, though, many people have periods in their career that are particularly grueling. Nurses are not unique in that regard.
But I think your rant in the last paragraph is diminished by not acknowledging that much of this is a self inflicted wound resulting from poor public policy foisted on us by politicians and the public health community, usually oversold and inconsistent.
We destroyed an economy at costs wildly out of proportion to the benefits or disease risks. And past reactions to pandemics.
Vaccines are obviously indicated for those at high risk, or not having natural immunity. But their efficacy was overstated. And its one size fits all: vaccinate, to fit a political narrative. Further, to vilify those not wanting to be vaccinated is just horrid policy. There have been plenty of adverse reactions. And before someone says we always have those, it is the unexplained nature of these reactions, the partial efficacy and rushed approval that make this an issue that should be one of choice. I’m not aware that adverse reactions to tetanus or the normal flu have resulted in some of the reactions to the covid vaccine.
Initially masks were useless according to Fauci. Then mandatory, then, no, we need two. Except if you are Fauci or Newsom etc etc at some gala. The CDC changes its views almost weekly.
New York seeded nursing homes with covid patients. Guy wrote a book and was lionized in the press. Nice.
The hospital system would be over run, except that it wasn’t. At least not facilities; its staffing.
The use of HCQ seems of rather dim potential. But Ivermectin is a different story. It may ultimately prove to be of minimal use. But there is enough evidence to warrant a vigorous investigation. But that is frowned upon. What we get is vaccine, vaccine, vaccine……for political reasons.
I could go on. Policies are stated as the vaunted “science” and stated with cock-sureness, yet they are revised like clockwork. Just today the booster policy is in question. That only took a week. The general population know these people are either making it up as we go, or just polly-parroting the political line. They are tired of it.
You really have no idea how wrong you are about most of what you said. Lets go backwards.
Ivermectin? Friowned upon? You dont realize that the large, prospective, randomized controlled studies we have needed all along are actually ongoing right now? You dont do you? They are so frowned upon that they have been well financed so we can do it right.
Actually, it was in NYC. I hire ICU docs. I hired docs who were working there. They had two pts on one ventilator in a lot of places. You have some basic grasp of physics. What could go wrong with that? In Idaho they both dont have enough facilities and not enough staff. The same is true at Texas Children’s and others.
So you claim but first there is no clear evidence that NY really had higher nursing home deaths. Best attempts at figuring out the real death rates accounting for Cuomo’s attempts to hide nursing home deaths still put NYC at a lower than average death rate. (https://khn.org/news/article/new-york-governor-andrew-cuomo-politics-policies-covid-death-rates-nursing-home-controversy/)
Since I dont especially care what Fauci said, masks work. You are just playing politics. I play doctor. They have always worked. Not 100% but they help.
Their efficacy was not overstated. Where did you get that from? The m-RNA vaccines were reported about 95% effective against the original variant. That has held pretty well. They were also reported to be 90%-95% effect against severe disease. That has help well. Delta was an unknown variant but the vaccines still do well against delta. So what we are seeing is that the very large majority of people dying an hospitalized are unvaccinated. And yes we are going to see vaccinated people get sick. This is the same thing we see when we have our small measles outbreaks. Few vaccines, if any, are 100% effective. What we count upon is having everyone vaccinated. If everyone is vaccinated then you as a vaccinated person will very rarely meet someone with measles so that 3% chance the vaccine fails (measles is about 97% effective) almost never happens. In the case of Covid you have lots of places where over 50% have not been vaccinated. You are constantly being exposed so you have a good chance of eventually having a failure.
We have not had a pandemic like this before in the modern era. Pretty much every other country did the same. Some places probably did over react, but it was a new virus. 20/20 hindsight is wonderful.
Steve
Nice overall review on Ivermectin. Of note, there is a drug which has now shown promise in a couple of well done studies. Do you know what it is? Why isn’t Drew advocating for a drug which has positive effects?
https://www.wired.com/story/better-data-on-ivermectin-is-finally-on-its-way/
The PRINCIPLE trial is one of the large ones underway. The TOGETHER trial was also underway but was stopped by its safety monitors as the drug showed no effect.