tommmyboy7785 t1_j0yt363 wrote
Reply to comment by SolitaryMarmot in Thousands of NYC nurses begin vote to authorize strike: 'We were the heroes' by thonioand
A few points I wanted to make here. I hate unions. I was in the ICU for several days this year. Nurses have the skills of doctors, but the ego is replaced with compassion. Nothing was more comforting than my latin nurse getting me when I came out of a coma and saying hey baby, I'm XYZ, this is what happened. Relax and we'll take great care of you. Doctors dont do that.
No one is making anyone do 2 jobs. Nurses wouldn't just walk out on their patients, however. The insane workload was only possible because the union management was also I n FL or too dumb to capitalize on a once in a lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change change the structure of nurse compensation nationally.
This never should have even been raised by union members to get their paid representation to advocate for them. Unions are huge government supporters but the nurses union was too dumb to lobby for a heroes 500b fund for future raises?
The union should refund all dues collected during COVID because that money wasn't earned. If all NYC nursing unions gave all hospitals a list of demands + 72 hours notice to not harm patients, I could confidently resolve this from bed in under an hour. Regardless of what you believe you deserve, you won't get it unless you ask for it. I'd ask for x% raise effective 1/1/23; annual raise equal to COLA adjustment as determined by SS + x% of annual insurance reimbursement increase + complete health benefit restoration + zero cost dental for everyone because they pissed me off
JerseyDawg_MD t1_j12wlwd wrote
Not to take anything away from your story, but nurses don’t have the skills of doctors. They are an important part of the healthcare team, but have completely different training and responsibilities than doctors. And while nurses are usually there at bedside most of the time, it because that’s literally their job. Doctors can’s spend too much time with a single patient, since they have so many patients to see. In the end, all of the care decisions are made by doctors, not nurses.
tommmyboy7785 t1_j12zz2t wrote
I was joking and have great respect and general reference for medical providers. At the end of the day, the best general can't win a war without the individual and collective effort of the soldiers. If you needed to be tubed or have a line inserted in an emergency, you'd want a nurse rather than a doc to do it. The way you write makes clear you're proud to be a doctor (as you should be), but aren't the type to say on a date "I hold peoples' lives in my hands every day" 🤣.
MyPiedaterre t1_j111xbh wrote
Didn’t read all that but I feel you in that ego thing. People really underestimate the importance of receiving healthcare from someone who treats you like a human being. Have a feeling it does have huge impacts in outcome.
Not sure it’s a doc vs nurse thing though, just a human character thing. Not sure what we could do to preserve and encourage it. I don’t think higher pay is automatically the answer but maybe better staffing ratios
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