Posted on 01/17/2023 5:03:37 AM PST by MtnClimber
Last week, my email inbox was flooded with headlines about a nursing strike taking place at two major NYC hospitals. E.g., from the New York Daily News, January 9:
Though the strike has since ended, my thought when I read the headlines was: Here is a legitimate concern: For years, there has been a looming shortage of healthcare workers, and of nurses specifically. The linked article has a list of statistics, such as: 4.7 million nurses are expected to retire by 2030; 55% of current registered nurses are over the age of 50.
It is possible, maybe even likely, that the nursing union might exaggerate claims of a looming staffing shortage in order to strengthen its negotiating positions. However, I maintain that we have enough social indicators from Gen Z and Millenials – that is, people in the 20-45 age range – to wonder what might happen if there comes a time when there are not enough people willing to work in industries that require difficult physical labor or emotional hardship. If there are insufficient incentives for people to do that work, then our problems with strikes and shortages are just beginning.
The Left frequently proclaims that “Healthcare is a Human Right!” But that statement assumes conditions in which healthcare can take place: the innovations, technology, and personnel to administer advanced medicine. Beyond requiring that healthcare be “fully funded” by the government, and insisting patients not bear financial responsibility for their treatment, Leftists seem to take for granted that there will always be enough people willing to dedicate their lives to the service of others, while ignoring the complex incentive structures at play.
Nursing is not just “a job,” in the normal sense. “Just a job” is what I had when I worked for a law firm as a campus recruiter. One memory stands out from that era of my life: there were a few months of the year, during the on-campus interviews, when we worked long hours and never seemed to have enough time to get everything done. One day as I was buzzing about my desk, frantically trying to get folders organized for candidates that were about to walk in the door for their interviews, a partner at the firm saw I was struggling. He came over to me to reassure me. “Just remember,” he said, “no one’s life is at stake here. Your mistakes don’t really matter.”
On the other hand, during the nursing strike last week, many patients at Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals did not receive necessary medical procedures. The Daily News quotes Veronica Santos, who took her father to the emergency room, saying that he had not received a CT scan for a heart ailment because there was no one to administer it. Healthcare can’t be a “human right” when there is no one there to administer it.
That’s the thing about nursing: it’s uniquely immediate and purposeful work. It requires a belief in the value of serving the community, and a willingness to be present for some of life’s ugliest and most difficult moments. As those currently working in the industry start to retire, Millennials and Gen Z have given little indication that they are interested in taking their place – quite the opposite.
Far from being “tough” or able to handle difficulty, young people are afraid of hearing words they don’t like. They want “safe spaces” and trigger warnings. They have been known to accuse people of “violence” and “trauma” for “misgendering” them. The Washington Free Beacon reported in September that during a mandatory training, Harvard told its students that “using the wrong pronouns constitutes abuse.” If words have become violence, what will younger generations make of the real thing?
Millennials and Gen Z are also the first generations to have grown up with the internet. In the case of Gen Z, they’ve been carrying the internet in their pocket since elementary school. The Hill reports that 1 in 4 Gen Z’ers “Plan to become social media influencers.” They have seen their peers make millions by simply making TikTok videos of themselves dancing in the mirror. If that’s an option, who would choose long hours on their feet during a hospital shift, arms deep in human fluids?
This sums up my lack of faith that rising generations will be called to nursing: first, that they are accustomed to having a screen between themselves and reality; second, that there are a plethora of options for them to work cushy laptop jobs that pay six figures and don’t require any physical or emotional labor. There’s no blood, and no screaming – unless it’s to accuse someone of racism.
To be clear, I can’t disparage my fellow Millennials or our juniors, Gen Z, in this at all. I am also to blame. I am a working mom and I work at home full-time. I swear, I am not one of the Sarah/Elizabeth bots that comment on my dad’s blog about making 120/hr for online work. But, I share their desire to pursue my dreams from the comfort of the couch, while saving my mental and emotional energy for my family.
But I too would say, adamantly, that the world needs nurses, and if they want more money or more support, they should have it. But ? that seems to underscore the basic flaw in the younger generation’s worldview: with the infinite supply of government money, we can summon up an infinite supply of other people to do the work. Meanwhile, we’ll keep our cushy laptop jobs.
It is one thing to see what needs to happen, quite another to incentivize people to do it – especially when the work requires a sacrifice on someone else’s part. Those incentives might require a cultural shift: a return to the values of community and service. In our current political environment, young people seem to think that claiming something as an entitlement means someone will inevitably show up to do the work. Perhaps if nobody does, younger generations will be forced to realize that if they want healthcare to be a human right, then they might have to abide by that old saying: if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
It looks like we are headed toward having “The Best Healthcare System in the World”. Just like Cuba.
you’d have to be nuts to go into any frontline healthcare position today..........
accidentally miss the vein and your career could be over at best or be sharing a cell with the Idaho killer at worst
That matter of the 13th Amendment stands in the way of forcing people to labour for another’s heathcare.
There is nothing more expensive then something “free” from the government.
Automation. Have the equivalent of a robot dog hold you down, take your blood and change your sheets.
A care service that is provided by others cannot be a “right”.
The Hill reports that 1 in 4 Gen Z’ers “Plan to become social media influencers.”
How many ghetto basketball players want to play for the NBA?
More than simply the critical nursing shortage, this article is a prescient commentary on the future of our society in general. The Millenials, along with Gen Z, have been so ridiculously codled since birth that they are now incapable of handling any adversity. They are emotionally very fragile and physically weak. All their lives they have been told their special and have been shielded from any possible ill wind that they now cannot cope with ordinary life and are acting out their mental handicap.
Tragically, many societal institutions are reinforcing the problem as noted in the art3. Universities demand safe spaces. Big tech censors any who disagree with their warped world view. Major corporations now reflect, especially in advertising, this distorted world view, and of course politicians forever seem to pander to the weirdos and the fringes in our society. Throw in the millions of illegal immigrants and it’s hard to imagine where this will all end up.
The federal government provides over $1 trillion used to pay for health care.
There is not a right to health care, but only a right to money to buy health care from willing sellers of health care services and ancillary products.
Why is healthcare deemed a human right.
While healthcare is a human necessity, many forgo living long for disregarding the nuisance of healthy living
Absolutely! As long as it is provided with "fairness" and "equity", which obviously would include mandatory euthanasia for racists, homophobes, ultra-magas, and anyone else listed on Federal Schedule 3a (or maybe 3b)...
( \sarc ;^)
If I cannot afford something myself, what enables me to pay for other people?
Unless you're a baby who survives the initial abortion attempt in a Democratic state.
Amendment XIII
Take care of the loyal Democratic voter first, then we’ll allow you to charge other people at several times more than the typically wage rate.
Bump that up against the recent thread about how 90% of online content is going to be generated by AI very soon.
The number of humans making a living by creating social media content is likely to decline significantly. That "1 in 4" are going to have their hopes dashed.
Education, Medicine, Law Enforcement, and other fields are losing workers because the fields have become nightmares to work in. I look around and I see our society screwing up the use of human capital in every way possible.
If several can’t affords are fleeced, then Miss Loyal Democrat can have her health care funded.
It is how Democrats get rid of white union workers so they can be replaced by darker skin workers.
Joe Biden loves unions, but not members that might vote Republican.
Really,? It seems like it’s very hard to hold a medical professional responsible for a mistake today.
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