I heard this piece on the news about the burnout that is occurring (still occurring) at the hospitals right now. I know this well as I burnt out at one time. This is a profession known for eating their young and I can now add their disabled as well. After my injuries I wanted to keep working as a nurse but the hospital where I was employed had the amount of lifting in every job description. RN with decades of experience and I was offered either with monitor technician or Clerk in the psych ward. I worked as a tech until my back could no longer tolerate the job. Then down to 4 hour shifts entering data, there was no data collected for me to enter (busy job). Sued them due to them stopping workers comp and settled out of court as advised by our attorney.
Most should look at me as “There but for the grace of God go I” Highly doubt anything has changed there or at any other hospital. Health care has become a money making business. ICU’s that usually have a 2 to one nurse ratio is now (Due to Covid 19) up to a 4 or higher patient to nurse ratio. Not a safe situation. They are filling out a form each time they work that it is unsafe. I left an ICU job due to the unsafe conditions, main thing was the lack of help when needed. I decided that I wasn’t going to risk my license and I wanted some autonomy. I found it for a time in homecare nursing at a true cost as that is where I was injured.
They and we are unsung and un-recognized heroes, not just because we are in a pandemic. I think the nurses, doctors and anyone working in health care during this pandemic should have their loans paid for by our government. Plus some treatment for the emotional aftermath of this whole thing. Since it is a primarily a female profession a lot of this was shoved on us, the overstaffing, dissatisfaction. Many people you talk to are former nurses. Since more men are joining the workforce in hospitals maybe things will change. They also need to be unionized. I know that is a very controversial statement but from a unionized hospital to non unionized place I sure saw a huge difference. They stuck up for you when you needed help. I truly think that at a unionized hospital, a job could have been found for me without the weight lifting BS. In the unionized hospital I worked with a nurse who was a paraplegic in a wheelchair!
Guess when all this is said and done, we shall see if anything changes or if it just stagnates and stays the same. What would our Nations do right now with out the medical field?