Posted on 02/27/2010 7:33:36 PM PST by Saije
I have worked in a hospital environment in New England most of my adult life.
You get to work. That’s it. People depend on you to be there. No matter how bad the weather is, you try to get there.
Not everybody makes it. And if you work in Dermatology and you don’t make it, nobody makes noise.
If you work in the ER, radiology, respiratory therapy or on floors or units, you get there. It is the right thing to do. If you can’t commit to it, you shouldn’t be accepting a paycheck.
Yep. You hit it spot on.
We knew for a few days that this storm was coming and that it would be major. Medical personnel have got to know how to make arrangements. If they live far away from the hospital, they can get to the hospital or the home of a friend who lives nearby a day or two early to be there when needed. There are accommodations on the premises, beds, food, showers, etc. I’ve never known a doctor or nurse who didn’t report, no matter what it took.
How does it feel to be an infallible human machine? What happens if your "machine" breaks down? I've been in health care for over almost three decades and you sound like the usual crap oozing paid robot that has no idea how messy life can really be. I'll bet at least half a dozen nurses are now contemplating joining unions after reading your post.
Thanks..thanks a lot.
"We will unionize your workforce, or we will destroy your reputation." Andrew Stern, SEIU President
Stern said this in the lead up to the unionization of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
These people are evil vermin and thugs. Plain and simple.
I saw the tactics they used against BIDMC beginning in 2007, parking a billboard truck in front of the hospital with accusations of fraud, sloppy care and so on.
BIDMC caved and unionized last year.
They are all scum of the highest order. There is nothing to agree with any of them about.
I’m not an infallible human machine.
I take my damned job seriously, and have done so since I started working in healthcare.
If I had patients, I went. PERIOD. No questions asked.
I do it because it is the PATIENT that counts, and the other people working who are going to have to pick up the slack because I let THEM down.
If I don’t go in, patients still need care, and if someone ELSE has to work 48 hours straight because I have some lame reason for not making it.
YOU obviously couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the patients YOU should be caring for, or the co-workers who are going to have to work till they drop because YOU looked out your window and whimpered “Ehhh...too much snow. I think I’ll call in...”
Yeah, I can see who you care about.
I work at a non union hospital that does just that. Maybe you should find another hospital to work at if you feel the way you do.
No, but I would contribute to a bonus, if they would all just take the rest of the year off till after the elections.LOL
Not everyone has that commitment that you have. Reading this thread, that much is clear.
Baloney. Do you known how hard it is to replace medical staff? Hospitals pay top dollar for them. They aren’t going to fire anyone for a missed day. They will however fire for another reason, like incompetence.
The people on the front lines in health care do care about the patients and they are sick of the tired old excuses that they don't care enough every time some admin type has their bonus threatened because they couldn't expand an operation or justify poor care because of bean counting.
Yeah...keep on spouting that crap. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Yeah...I don't care about the patients...pifff...and you are a racist if you don't like Obama's policies./s
Hospitals are not prison camps...stop running them like they are.
The VP in charge of my my department told me that I was to work out my son’s health issues to ensure that I was at work every day. Two days later the VP stayed home because her horse was in labor. I guess her horse was more valuable.
Total crap...the hospitals are run on policy...just like a computer...there is no human consideration there. Lower level managers may know that an employee has legitimate reasons for calling in but after they reach the policy max, they have no choice but to terminate.
I've seen great nurses get fired for attending their own grandmother's funeral after staying home a few times with a sick child. You are not talking to some freshman nursing student here.
Hell. We should be hoping for more snowstorms...the less work the government “workers” do, probably the better off we will be.
But this deals with a health care setting. If a pencil pusher at the State Department doesn’t go in because of snow, it is no big deal.
If a physician or RN or respiratory therapist working in an intensive care unit doesn’t go in someone still has to suction that patient, give them meds and check their vitals.
If a CT tech decides to stay home, someone is still going to have to take those CT images to diagnose someone who might be having a stroke.
In all of these cases, sure, there are always people who will work the extra shifts to make sure that happens and the care is delivered. But why should they have to? It just makes it more likely that someone will make a mistake because they are tired and overworked.
And why? Because someone who knew bad weather was coming in didn’t plan appropriately? My cranial bleed gets missed because someone had to work for 24 hours straight?
(This is all rhetorical, by the way...not directed at you)
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is WAY more to the story.....<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
I worked in a mountainous location with a staff coming from various directions to get to work over several routes.
When it did snow, we would have some employees out of a shift of 15 or so get through just fine fron a certain direction, while others who would have traveled the same route immediately called out. And it was always the same ones, the staff who requested numerous days off then called out sick if the days were not approved.
I smell a rat here for at least some of the employees in the article.
Just sayin’.....
My brother tried to reach federal offices in DC via phone and got repeated messages that they were short staffed due to the snowstorm several days after the original snowstorm. Wonder if they got their paychecks docked......?
It is a cop out. It is a good thing you don’t work in health care anymore, because you obviously have no idea what it is like.
I do.
And I am lucky to work at a great not-for-profit hospital with quality people who DO care about the patients they are charged with. The hospital makes EVERY effort to treat their employees well, because they know damn well that if they don’t, there are union vultures just waiting. Are we perfect? No. Anyone who works in health care understands there is no such thing as perfection.
But what you don’t seem to understand is that regardless of “politics and bad policy” (AND bad weather) PEOPLE STILL NEED TO BE CARED FOR. If EVERYONE walks away from it, it only gets worse.
It sucks working in healthcare sometimes. It is stressful as hell, and I routinely work 50-60 hour weeks and am on call for a whole week 24x7 one out of every three weeks. But I do it because what I do counts. It helps people. And I work that hard because the people I work with are great, they depend on me not to let them down, and I depend on them. And they don’t let me down.
And that makes the crappy environment worth it. You were the one calling names, not me. I cast no aspersion on you. I didn’t accuse YOU of being a toady for the unions, and I didn’t accuse YOU of ushering in socialized heathcare.
But I’m not copping out. I am sticking with it.
Right. Did EVERY employee who didn’t get in during this storm get fired? I doubt it.
Given the fact that there were rumors of hundreds of people getting fired, I am willing to bet that there were, in fact, hundreds of people who didn’t make it in.
That there were only 11 RN’s fired and 5 staffers indicates that there were other circumstances.
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