Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Projectionists' complaint shared by nurses

This is topic Projectionists' complaint shared by nurses in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-04-2003, 03:58 PM:

This letter appeared in the New York Times Magazine on 3/30/03 in response to the 3/16 issue devoted to what's wrong with health care:

"As a 25-year veteran of bedside nursing, the last 15 in a busy Baltimore E.R., I think I can testify to some other reasons for this crisis.
One is the belief by administrators that nurses are overeducated and that nursing care is just a set of tasks. This has led to programs at many hospitals for short (six weeks or less) training courses for minimum-wage staff members who do these tasks. Some hospitals prohibit staff members from identifying themselves as R.N.'s [Registered Nurses]. We are all just "health care workers" now..."
ANNE GOLDEN CREAMER, R.N.
Brookfield, Wis.

Projectionists, does this sound familiar?
Is it happening in other vocations or professions as well?

Gerard

[ 04-04-2003, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: Gerard S. Cohen ]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-04-2003, 05:25 PM:

Yes it is the dumbing down of all crafts and vocations that seems now to be the vogue

Posted by Michael West (Member # 428) on 04-04-2003, 10:21 PM:

gerard and gordon yes, that is true but as an additional problem for us - and corporations and the public will agree - we are non-essential, nurses, firemen, police, emergency services and teachers are all essential (literally life and death services, and they can use these arguments to further their claims) we are not, and therefore, quite powerless. i think our plight is more liken to that of a "haut cuisin chef" being replaced by the "high volume output" of an inexperianced fast food team.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-04-2003, 10:25 PM:

I had some minor surgery a couple years ago. Was in the hospital for just a half-day (but went under general anesthesia). I'm not complaining, and the standard of care seemed very high. It was clear that some of the "nurses" who looked after me were not really nurses. But they did seem to be well-supervised, and a real nurse did check up on me from time to time during recovery. Also, it DEFINITELY felt like I was on a high-volume assembly line where they move as many patients through as they can in the shortest time, consistent with reasonable care.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 04-04-2003, 10:40 PM:

A few years ago, I had some surgery and woke up with tubes coming out of my chest and my dick! Before the surgery, they never told me about "drainage" tubes... GOD! What a surprise!

I did receive excellent care and I didn't feel "rushed". Ummmm, just a little embarrassed when that cute male-nurse removed my "catheter".... Hubba Hubba! [beer]

>>> Phil

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-05-2003, 08:24 PM:

This "dumbing down" seems to be taking a toll on doctors as well. In NY, Medicaid, a federally-funded but state administered program, was working very well, providing health care to low income people, especially children, after the kinks of its early days were worked out. It was non-profit, efficient and secure.

Then the Republican governor and mayor agreed to cut the program "to save funds," even though they never spent anywhere near the federal funds allocated for it. So they privatized the system, forcing NYS Medicaid patients into some 17 private health care plans in Manhattan alone. (There are well over 2,000 health care plans in the U.S.) Businessmen with no medical experience, seeking easy pickings, formed plans to enrich themselves and provided dividends to their investors. Most plans pay doctors "per capita", meaning $8 to $12 per month for names on a list, whether the patients show up or not. But their salesmen tell their card-holders they can have unlimited visits to their (chosen or assigned) doctor, and the doctor is on call 24/7/365! If the patient is sick, the doctor may have many visits during the month for the same monthly per-capita fee of $8-$12. Doctors prefer to be remunerated "fee for service," charging only for services rendered.

So the doctors are now called "providers", the insurance companies "vendors" and the term "doctor" or "physician" disappears. I had the salesperson of a "vendor" ship me a 24 pound carton of manuals, directories and forms for "America's
largest HealthCare Vendor." When I learned the "provider" could only request "fee for service" after accepting 200 "capitation" patients, we quit the program. But since one cannot quit the program until after one year of signing the contract, our name remained in the directory and it took many letters and phone calls to divest ourselves of this annoyance. (By not removing the names of the "providers" who quit, these privatized boondoggles inflate their directories.)

Another "dumbing down" stroke was the authorizing of "Physician Assistants", a practitioner neither a doctor nor nurse. Originally designed to provide employment for veteran military medics, and to help alleviate the shortage of doctors,
it has become a cheaper way for hospitals and clinics to staff their programs. [Theatre chains title their employees "assistant managers" to discourage the desire to form unions and to escape coverage by labor laws.]

In addition to projectionists, restaurant chefs, nurses and doctors, can anyone name any other craft, vocation or profession
affected by this "dumbing down" phenomenon?

Gerard