About 15 years ago a local health care system hired a man who had run manufacturing operations in our city for a Fortune 500 company. Won’t name it but I will tell you it manufactures air conditioning units. Anyway, the guy went in and made changes as if the medical center was a business; brought in/hired some of his favorite underlings to implement changes. That health care system has never been the same. Hospitals and clinics aren’t businesses, but all business people can see are dollar signs. I’ve wondered what the founding physician brothers of this health care system would think about how their previously excellent medical practices have been changed. Now, there’s a focus on technology and data and how that’s going to streamline “care” even further. Just in time manufacturing can’t be applied to health care settings. Care cannot be streamlined because care involves vulnerable humans with unique situations and histories. But try telling that to business types. I don’t need an MBA (a dime a dozen anyway) to understand that fact because, as a patient , I saw and experienced firsthand the changes that went along with the corporate attitude that permeated the place. I’ve lost all respect for corporate thinking and the culture it promotes.
Nurses save the world. There is no one I trust more than a good nurse. Even if I like the doctor, the nurse has a different perspective and at times a better one.
A few years ago, I read a paper about the pattern of deprofessionalization. The authors were studying K-12 teachers, but the concept applies to a wide and growing array of professions, including nurses. My father, a professor of medicine in a teaching hospital, always told the residents under his guidance that the nurse was always the most informed person in a patient’s room. During his final illness, the nurses who cared for him were the foundation for my advocacy for his care. They deserve to be paid living wages.
i am a cancer patient and am in perpetual and constant awe of "our" nurses. Their level of knowledge, professionalism and caring is simply amazing. Beyond that, almost all problems in society are caused by "management"... and capitalism, of course.
Thank you for writing so clearly about what nurses face. And the bullshit of upper management and just where the exorbitant money goes. Not anywhere near direct caregivers pockets that's for sure. I worked in hospitals for forty five years, in ER and ICU primarily. The bullshit raining down was constant. Mostly ignored as we did what needed to be done anyway. With less than we needed. And worked to not let patients know how stretched we were. They don't need that on top of being I'll and defenseless. Hospital management is a microcosm of our current horrible political situation. If management could, they would do away with registered nurses and use techs. Poor outcomes follow.
Where would the doctors be without nurses? Yet nurses, especially in hospitals, are treated like servants not the professionals they are. My sister-in-law, a head floor nurse at the VA hospital in a large American city, drives a Subaru. The head maintenance man drives a Maserati. I’m not suggesting that maintenance of a large hospital isn’t a crucial job, but more crucial than nursing?
Thank you for this beautifully written article. It's the same old death knell across the country. Anything the ultra-rich touch dies a strangulated death. We need to tax the rich out of this country, so we can all live together in peace and plenty. THE PEOPLE LOVE YOU, NURSES!
This is an extraordinary article. Just think what would happen if CEO only took $1M and split the other $7M among hospital staff as bonus. What would happen if they increased staff pay, across the board, by 30% and absorbed staff health insurance costs ? They would have people clamoring to work there. They could change the world of Healthcare in the US. I once worked at a large children's hospital that paid more than every other Healthcare institution in the region and treated staff really well. Result...80 applicants for every one rare staff vacancy (from housekeeping to nurses). It wasn't perfect but we did feel valued there and were happy for the most part. Healthcare workers have a serving spirit and are caregivers by nature so it doesn't take that much to satisfy. We do not need $4000 an day but enough to pay bills and enjoy life on off time would be appropriate, deserved and come back to reward not only the employee but the institution. They should try it and see the miracles that would happen. I cannot figure out why these "leaders" are so stupid...maybe the greediness??? It is absolutely pathetic.
Recommend looking into the shocking levels of psychopathy in the nursing profession. The profession attracts them. Generally, any profession where you’re relied on and the person is helpless attracts psychopaths.
So, I was willing to hear you out and I decided to do some research into this. The empirical data doesn't support this claim.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal ran validated tests on 248 healthcare workers versus the general public and found nurses scored significantly below average on psychopathy comparatively.
The high-psychopathy jobs are the reverse of caregiving, CEO, lawyer, surgeon, cop, media. Those reward detachment. Sustained care of a dependent person needs the empathy psychopaths lack, which is why nursing sits at the bottom.
Please provide a citation or evidence for your claim about the “shocking levels of psychopathy in the nursing profession”. The single US-published study in the literature that examines possible correlation of psychopathic traits with occupation states “Psychopathic traits, especially those linked to fearless dominance, were positively and moderately associated with holding leadership and management positions, as well as high-risk occupations. In addition, psychopathic traits were positively associated with political conservatism, lack of belief in God, and living in Europe as opposed to the United States, although the magnitudes of these statistical effects were generally small in magnitude.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25101019/
It’s not the bedside nurses…but possibly managers and leadership, as @dissentinbloom suggests!
This is atrocious that nurses in Boston and let's face it , throughout our country are being wronged by not really given a livable wage as compared to the upper echelons, having no medical training , merely out for profits for themselves mostly and deemed oh ther staff as more vital actually. The proper staffing, basically overloading nurses with basically more patients to care for that patient's lives are at stake. Also didn't this trumshit's brigade strip the term "professional " from their status so it changes their federa educational funding for those people pursuing a nursing degree? And no surprise, mostly women usually pursue a nursing degree and definitely rely on federal funds to get the education needed. I presume, with the push for pumping out more babies by women, this is the intent, for women might delay or not even want to marry and pumping out babies to advance their careers instead. No surprise.
I remember while in the hospital cuz some doctor did a procedure beyond what he actually was only to do and I became septic after a recent shoulder replacement. After a 2 days, the hospital administrator said, I was only there for a shoulder replacement and to get me out as I b was in the throws of full blown sepsis and doctors and nurses were arguing with her trying to explain how sick I was....this arguing went over 2 days, until she visited me and saw me white as a ghost b barely able to speak and then stopped. It wasn't until they cultured enough to find what bacteria was responsible and after a complete blood transfusion and infusion of red blood cells and several more day did I get well enough to go home...I had infusions of the antibiotic for 6 weeks every single day and afterwards oral antibiotics for a year. I had to relearn to walk actually. I was literally dying in the hospital, I know cuz i am a health professional and know with the monitoring was indicated. They did not charge me anything for my ordeal at that hospital whatsoever. This is what happens when the administrators are really more concerned with profits then the nurses and even doctors
The highly-overcompensated corporate trustees, executives and boards members do not deliver actual healthcare and are not required to have any medical experience or medical education/training. This is a common phenomenon in US Capitalist organizations that seek to maximize short term profits.
I and so many others are alive today because of the dedicated nurses and doctors at MGB. There should be medical practitioners on all boards of medical institutions to provide the practical, human, humane guidance for the organization. The practitioners should get the financial rewards of their dedication, not investment bankers and wealth advisors.
Got lost on a medical complex. Ended up in the doctor parking garage. By the cars I saw, they’re being compensated just fine. I’m talking high end Porsches.
This entire article and subject matter is NOT about the doctors. This article is about underpaid, overworked NURSES!!!! In case you did not understand....doctors and nurses are different professions.
Let's play a game. Tell how many years total you have 24/7 in a hospital... add up your hours as a nurse bedside... your shifts in the ICU during the height of COVID or maybe you were in the NICU when an infant was just too small to survive despite everything, and you bathed him and then placed him in the tiniest black body bag for the walk with the chaplain to the morgue because the young parents just couldn't and you promised you would. Perhaps you got some hours in the trauma center on a mass casualty call, or your work with patients the burn unit, or the time you were doing compressions on a 46 yo's chest who walked into the ED and suddenly went into in full arrest... all while his wife and kids watched. Go ahead and tell how many hours you actually performed wound or trach care, started an IV, placed a catheter, held a mother in your arms who's only son drowned, or helped explain to 5 yo all the machines keeping his 9 yo brain dead brother alive in the PICU. Go ahead. I'll wait.
No, better yet... be brave. Own your words.... just give us your name and city. We'll have your local hospital send you the pizza bill the next Nurses' Week. Cold pizza is usually all the thanks they get.
From your responses to this article, I image you get lost quite a lot. So, I'll try to keep things really simple for you... firstly, nurses don't park in the doctors' parking. Secondly, if you have such a poor view of nurses, next time you're ailing or injured... just sit in your car and chew a piece of gum or stay in the ambulance, and think healing thoughts. Alas, the tragic truth is some of those very same overpaid, psychopathic nurses you malign will come to your aid and offer the compassionate and professional care to your disrespectful, undeserving dumb ass as they would the equallly disrespectful and undeserving CEO... the exquisite care they'd give their own child. Why? Because most have wanted to be nurse since they were kids themselves, and studied and worked hard, and went into debt to take an oath they believe and live out... just so they could care of people, even those who call them names, cuss them out, belittle them, and even take a swing at them. Be glad I'm not a nurse, but the chaplain who has worked beside them in natural disasters, through mass murders, pandemics, and the day-to-day soul-killing grind that is healthcare today. Fortunately, for you, I too, have a calling that will compel me pray for your nasty self as steadfastly as I do the nurses caring for you.
Shall I address your later comment about nurses being "pathological"? Nah, you can't handle the truth.
Nurses are the mist least paid workers for the work that we do to keep patients alive and comfortably during the patients hours of need. We find and report mistakes that doctors have made we known the patients better than the doctors treating them yet the hospitals look down on us and give us more patients that causes unsafe working conditions not just for the nurse but for the Patient. They make Pennie’s on the dollar while the suits, who make millions and have NO medical background make the decisions on how much we can handle. It’s insane
Regarding who sits on boards etc. true story…
About 15 years ago a local health care system hired a man who had run manufacturing operations in our city for a Fortune 500 company. Won’t name it but I will tell you it manufactures air conditioning units. Anyway, the guy went in and made changes as if the medical center was a business; brought in/hired some of his favorite underlings to implement changes. That health care system has never been the same. Hospitals and clinics aren’t businesses, but all business people can see are dollar signs. I’ve wondered what the founding physician brothers of this health care system would think about how their previously excellent medical practices have been changed. Now, there’s a focus on technology and data and how that’s going to streamline “care” even further. Just in time manufacturing can’t be applied to health care settings. Care cannot be streamlined because care involves vulnerable humans with unique situations and histories. But try telling that to business types. I don’t need an MBA (a dime a dozen anyway) to understand that fact because, as a patient , I saw and experienced firsthand the changes that went along with the corporate attitude that permeated the place. I’ve lost all respect for corporate thinking and the culture it promotes.
Go nurses! ✊
Nurses save the world. There is no one I trust more than a good nurse. Even if I like the doctor, the nurse has a different perspective and at times a better one.
Im a transplant patient. My nurses showed me love, respect and compassion. Nurses are way more intelligent than corporate big wigs,
A few years ago, I read a paper about the pattern of deprofessionalization. The authors were studying K-12 teachers, but the concept applies to a wide and growing array of professions, including nurses. My father, a professor of medicine in a teaching hospital, always told the residents under his guidance that the nurse was always the most informed person in a patient’s room. During his final illness, the nurses who cared for him were the foundation for my advocacy for his care. They deserve to be paid living wages.
It’s the same thing everywhere. Crony Board of Directors completely detached from real people and their lives.
i am a cancer patient and am in perpetual and constant awe of "our" nurses. Their level of knowledge, professionalism and caring is simply amazing. Beyond that, almost all problems in society are caused by "management"... and capitalism, of course.
Thank you for writing so clearly about what nurses face. And the bullshit of upper management and just where the exorbitant money goes. Not anywhere near direct caregivers pockets that's for sure. I worked in hospitals for forty five years, in ER and ICU primarily. The bullshit raining down was constant. Mostly ignored as we did what needed to be done anyway. With less than we needed. And worked to not let patients know how stretched we were. They don't need that on top of being I'll and defenseless. Hospital management is a microcosm of our current horrible political situation. If management could, they would do away with registered nurses and use techs. Poor outcomes follow.
Where would the doctors be without nurses? Yet nurses, especially in hospitals, are treated like servants not the professionals they are. My sister-in-law, a head floor nurse at the VA hospital in a large American city, drives a Subaru. The head maintenance man drives a Maserati. I’m not suggesting that maintenance of a large hospital isn’t a crucial job, but more crucial than nursing?
Nurses rock! God bless you all, and good luck in your fight. The rest of us need you.
Thank you for this beautifully written article. It's the same old death knell across the country. Anything the ultra-rich touch dies a strangulated death. We need to tax the rich out of this country, so we can all live together in peace and plenty. THE PEOPLE LOVE YOU, NURSES!
This is an extraordinary article. Just think what would happen if CEO only took $1M and split the other $7M among hospital staff as bonus. What would happen if they increased staff pay, across the board, by 30% and absorbed staff health insurance costs ? They would have people clamoring to work there. They could change the world of Healthcare in the US. I once worked at a large children's hospital that paid more than every other Healthcare institution in the region and treated staff really well. Result...80 applicants for every one rare staff vacancy (from housekeeping to nurses). It wasn't perfect but we did feel valued there and were happy for the most part. Healthcare workers have a serving spirit and are caregivers by nature so it doesn't take that much to satisfy. We do not need $4000 an day but enough to pay bills and enjoy life on off time would be appropriate, deserved and come back to reward not only the employee but the institution. They should try it and see the miracles that would happen. I cannot figure out why these "leaders" are so stupid...maybe the greediness??? It is absolutely pathetic.
Recommend looking into the shocking levels of psychopathy in the nursing profession. The profession attracts them. Generally, any profession where you’re relied on and the person is helpless attracts psychopaths.
So, I was willing to hear you out and I decided to do some research into this. The empirical data doesn't support this claim.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal ran validated tests on 248 healthcare workers versus the general public and found nurses scored significantly below average on psychopathy comparatively.
The high-psychopathy jobs are the reverse of caregiving, CEO, lawyer, surgeon, cop, media. Those reward detachment. Sustained care of a dependent person needs the empathy psychopaths lack, which is why nursing sits at the bottom.
Sorry. Likely doesn’t apply to you. I’m in the U.S.
I’m not a Michael Moore fan. But his Canadian Bacon movie is pretty accurate.
Please provide a citation or evidence for your claim about the “shocking levels of psychopathy in the nursing profession”. The single US-published study in the literature that examines possible correlation of psychopathic traits with occupation states “Psychopathic traits, especially those linked to fearless dominance, were positively and moderately associated with holding leadership and management positions, as well as high-risk occupations. In addition, psychopathic traits were positively associated with political conservatism, lack of belief in God, and living in Europe as opposed to the United States, although the magnitudes of these statistical effects were generally small in magnitude.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25101019/
It’s not the bedside nurses…but possibly managers and leadership, as @dissentinbloom suggests!
This is atrocious that nurses in Boston and let's face it , throughout our country are being wronged by not really given a livable wage as compared to the upper echelons, having no medical training , merely out for profits for themselves mostly and deemed oh ther staff as more vital actually. The proper staffing, basically overloading nurses with basically more patients to care for that patient's lives are at stake. Also didn't this trumshit's brigade strip the term "professional " from their status so it changes their federa educational funding for those people pursuing a nursing degree? And no surprise, mostly women usually pursue a nursing degree and definitely rely on federal funds to get the education needed. I presume, with the push for pumping out more babies by women, this is the intent, for women might delay or not even want to marry and pumping out babies to advance their careers instead. No surprise.
I remember while in the hospital cuz some doctor did a procedure beyond what he actually was only to do and I became septic after a recent shoulder replacement. After a 2 days, the hospital administrator said, I was only there for a shoulder replacement and to get me out as I b was in the throws of full blown sepsis and doctors and nurses were arguing with her trying to explain how sick I was....this arguing went over 2 days, until she visited me and saw me white as a ghost b barely able to speak and then stopped. It wasn't until they cultured enough to find what bacteria was responsible and after a complete blood transfusion and infusion of red blood cells and several more day did I get well enough to go home...I had infusions of the antibiotic for 6 weeks every single day and afterwards oral antibiotics for a year. I had to relearn to walk actually. I was literally dying in the hospital, I know cuz i am a health professional and know with the monitoring was indicated. They did not charge me anything for my ordeal at that hospital whatsoever. This is what happens when the administrators are really more concerned with profits then the nurses and even doctors
The highly-overcompensated corporate trustees, executives and boards members do not deliver actual healthcare and are not required to have any medical experience or medical education/training. This is a common phenomenon in US Capitalist organizations that seek to maximize short term profits.
I and so many others are alive today because of the dedicated nurses and doctors at MGB. There should be medical practitioners on all boards of medical institutions to provide the practical, human, humane guidance for the organization. The practitioners should get the financial rewards of their dedication, not investment bankers and wealth advisors.
Got lost on a medical complex. Ended up in the doctor parking garage. By the cars I saw, they’re being compensated just fine. I’m talking high end Porsches.
This entire article and subject matter is NOT about the doctors. This article is about underpaid, overworked NURSES!!!! In case you did not understand....doctors and nurses are different professions.
Have spent enough time in hospitals taking care of my parents. I’ve worked much harder than any nurse I’ve seen. Overworked? Bullshit.
Let's play a game. Tell how many years total you have 24/7 in a hospital... add up your hours as a nurse bedside... your shifts in the ICU during the height of COVID or maybe you were in the NICU when an infant was just too small to survive despite everything, and you bathed him and then placed him in the tiniest black body bag for the walk with the chaplain to the morgue because the young parents just couldn't and you promised you would. Perhaps you got some hours in the trauma center on a mass casualty call, or your work with patients the burn unit, or the time you were doing compressions on a 46 yo's chest who walked into the ED and suddenly went into in full arrest... all while his wife and kids watched. Go ahead and tell how many hours you actually performed wound or trach care, started an IV, placed a catheter, held a mother in your arms who's only son drowned, or helped explain to 5 yo all the machines keeping his 9 yo brain dead brother alive in the PICU. Go ahead. I'll wait.
No, better yet... be brave. Own your words.... just give us your name and city. We'll have your local hospital send you the pizza bill the next Nurses' Week. Cold pizza is usually all the thanks they get.
Your comment is too stupid for a reply.
From your responses to this article, I image you get lost quite a lot. So, I'll try to keep things really simple for you... firstly, nurses don't park in the doctors' parking. Secondly, if you have such a poor view of nurses, next time you're ailing or injured... just sit in your car and chew a piece of gum or stay in the ambulance, and think healing thoughts. Alas, the tragic truth is some of those very same overpaid, psychopathic nurses you malign will come to your aid and offer the compassionate and professional care to your disrespectful, undeserving dumb ass as they would the equallly disrespectful and undeserving CEO... the exquisite care they'd give their own child. Why? Because most have wanted to be nurse since they were kids themselves, and studied and worked hard, and went into debt to take an oath they believe and live out... just so they could care of people, even those who call them names, cuss them out, belittle them, and even take a swing at them. Be glad I'm not a nurse, but the chaplain who has worked beside them in natural disasters, through mass murders, pandemics, and the day-to-day soul-killing grind that is healthcare today. Fortunately, for you, I too, have a calling that will compel me pray for your nasty self as steadfastly as I do the nurses caring for you.
Shall I address your later comment about nurses being "pathological"? Nah, you can't handle the truth.
Nurses are the mist least paid workers for the work that we do to keep patients alive and comfortably during the patients hours of need. We find and report mistakes that doctors have made we known the patients better than the doctors treating them yet the hospitals look down on us and give us more patients that causes unsafe working conditions not just for the nurse but for the Patient. They make Pennie’s on the dollar while the suits, who make millions and have NO medical background make the decisions on how much we can handle. It’s insane