Yeah, that's right, it's my fault.

[oramar]

Last evening I was informed by a patient that the high cost of health care can be blamed on nurses and their high compensation and benefit cost. This is a afluent, well educated person in his late 70s. For past ten years he has been heavy user of health care due to a series of medical problems. He has had the most advanced medical care in the world, the best medical care money can buy. Indeed, I believe that he has had the best of everything all of his life. I am willing to bet it has cost millions of dollars to keep him alive here in his later years. But that has nothing to with the cost of health care and health insurance does it. It is me who at the end of my career, after years of being severly underpaid and over worked, who is now finally making a pretty good wage who is responsible for the high cost of health care. To bad I couldn't say what I was really thinking because it was a patient. However, if someone out on the street makes a comment like that they are going to be sorry they every met me.

[leslie :-D]

just goes to show you the ignorance of our consumer population; and if all were to date on what skilled nursing entails, such statements would be non-existent. i'm so sick & tired of the glorified hand-maiden image. well, at least we all know you're worth every nickel you earn oramar. time to educate the public!

leslie

[live4today, RN]

Ignorance is the downfall of many humans. Proof that just because one is highly educated doesn't mean they have any common sense.

[Nurse Valium]

It is me who at the end of my career, after years of being severly underpaid and over worked, who is now finally making a pretty good wage who is responsible for the high cost of health care. To bad I couldn't say what I was really thinking because it was a patient. However, if someone out on the street makes a comment like that they are going to be sorry they every met me.

Well, I knew we'd find out SOMEDAY whose fault it is!!!

[ERNurse752, RN]

Golly, I just realized he is SO right. Where can I donate my paycheck to putting an end to this travesty?

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I wonder why he picked nurses....not that it's there fault either but doctors make wayyyy more....

[dekatn]

Think I'll go in tomorrow and ask for a pay cut!!!! And, while there at it, maybe they will lower MY insurance premiums!!!

[jennyga]

All I can do is laugh, I dont even know what to say.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

I would love to know what he did for a living that got him to such affluent status and made him so worthy of all that high tech expensive health care when we as nurses cant even get it. Hmm, i dont make enough!!!

[justavolunteer]

Perhaps someone should have asked this person what illegal substance he had been smoking lately! I may be 'justavolunteer', but I sure as heck can see that nurses are far from overpaid! People should be thankful that there are so many caring nurses out there. I have been a patient myself, which made me glad that nurses exist.

[DusktilDawn]

I guess the big salaries of CEOs, presidents, and vice-presidents, along with the cost of medications, also the cost of state-of-the art equipment, the cost of supplies, building maintenance/code compliance costs, cost of theft (yep, those little niceties achieved at a five-finger discount), cost absorption done when there are those who cannot pay, the lack of focus on health prevention (d/t lack of insurance or coverage, or plain old fashioned life-style choices) that results in a public that uses the system when they reach their sickest, the cost of processing all those forms in triplicate, etc, etc, etc....NONE OF THIS has any effect whatsoever with the high cost of health care. It has to be the nurses.:angryfire

Folks, did you not know that nursing was a divine calling for those with purely altruistic hearts? We should not be paid, we should be paying them (yep, the patients and the hospital) for allowing us the priviledge of working understaffed, tolerating abusive conditions (which we deserve, of course), for expecting us to know EVERYTHING and treated like we know NOTHING, for dealing with life-and-death situations to the mundane and trivial (as in go-for, beck-and-call girl/boy/person), working through our breaks, leaving late, advocating between a rock and a hard place on behalf of our patients (advocate at your own risk), the wear and tear on our physical well-being (when we are unable to do our jobs physically, we really should just be thrown out with the trash), the emotional toll (we're supposed to be the most caring and compasionate individuals on the face of the earth, but not let it affect us), accepting the accountability, the responsiblity, and the liability that goes along with our jobs. What on earth makes us think we should even be compensated for this?:angryfire

Finally the nail has been hit on the head. The problem with health care costs is the NURSES.:angryfire

What else in the world of health care is new. WHEN IN DOUBT, BLAME THE NURSES. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

[SmilingBluEyes]

Must be friends with some high-powered administrators or others who put it out that nurses are their biggest liability and expenditure. Ignorance, not bliss.