Lawyers Advised to Get a Nursing License During Tough Times

caliotter3 · May 12, 2009

Interesting, especially the comments. When involved in a lawsuit, one of my attorneys made a comment about nursing. Frankly, sometimes I would rather have their job. But there is a disconnect between my brain and my mouth, so I would never be good for anything but the background work. I surprise myself that I'm capable of talking to a doctor about nurse things. To each his own. They're terribly wrong though, if they think that becoming a nurse will automatically bring about a job.

jackstem · May 12, 2009

They're terribly wrong though, if they think that becoming a nurse will automatically bring about a job.

Ain't it the truth. A nurse attorney friend sent me the link. I think it shows the misconceptions people have about nursing. No one says, "If you're struggling as an attorney, go back to school and become a doctor/engineer/astronaut. Shoot...just become a nurse. No big deal.

Oh Please!

NeedchangeofPace · May 16, 2009

If in fact nurses do eat their young, then there is now Shark Soup on the menu:smokin:

sorry I couldn't resist....

Mark

the bridge · Aug 10, 2009

Thank you jackstem for this great post! I clicked on the ABA Journal link and it was very interesting. One of the comments made was "But don’t go to nursing school thinking that you’re immediately going to become a nurse-lawyer/consultant. Being a nurse-lawyer/consultant is going to require credibility which comes from experience." How true! And another great quote was "However, if you’re just looking for a job and have another couple of years and many K to spend on tuition, by all means, go to nursing school, become a nurse. Work shifts, wear scrubs, be on your feet for many hours straight. But at least there are jobs out there for nurses." And we nurses know how tough it is to be on our fee for many hours too!

Here's my rant about lawyers and the health care system.

Recently, there has been a very big debate over the cost of health care in America and what to do about it.

Let's start with considering how much the average lawyer in America earns. Most sources on the internet state that lawyers will usually start out earning approximately $55,000 per year immediately following graduation from law school. That figure increases to approximately $115,000 per year after 20 years experience. But those are just estimates from a variety of internet blog sites. I have met a few lawyers in my lifetime and I can assure you, most of them make considerably more than the top end quoted above. I live in Wilmington, Delaware, and I know for a fact that some of the lawyers here make enough money to buy a $500,000 home with cash! Now as sensational as that statement may sound, it is a fact. And it probably would not be hard to extrapolate that to the rest of the country, especially in all of the big cities.

Wait a minute! Didn't I start this blog with the intentions of discussing the cost of health care in America? So, what do lawyers have to with the cost of health care in America? Well, there is the cost of malpractice insurance which every doctor and hospital must purchase unless they want to be left bare-naked in the event of losing a law suit. The cost of their malpractice insurance premiums they pay to their insurance companies is passed onto the public whenever they need medical care.

But, wait a minute! Have you ever looked at your bill after having received medical care at your doctor's office or hospital stay? You will see how much the doctor and/or hospital would like to charge and how much the insurance company will actually pay them? What's that all about? Do doctor's and hospital's jack up their bill with the hope they might at least get something close to what it cost them to perform the services rendered? And if they don’t get what they need from the patient’s health insurance provider, how do they make up the difference? Answer: they write it off as a tax deduction!

So, it appears that everyone who has health care insurance is paying for the rising cost of health care via their ever-rising health insurance premiums. And, even if you do not have health insurance, you are paying ever-rising taxes which include the money the government is trying to recoup because everyone, not just doctors and hospitals, but everyone who makes big money is always writing something off as a loss and deducting it from their income taxes.

And who is allowing all of this to happen? Answer: basically one could say we are all at fault, but let’s face it, the politicians in this country write the laws which effect the delivery of health care to the public. And one has to ask, “What is the background of these politicians who have so much oversight over our lives and our health?” Answer: lawyers! And every time I read about some Washington politician’s background, the majority of them were lawyers before entering politics!

I guess my point is this: Even though advances in medical technology and the cost of taking care of the underinsured, such as illegal aliens and those living in poverty, have had an effect on the rising cost of health care, should we ignore the role that lawyers have played in making health care more expensive?

And, I would definitely agree with anyone who says we all have a responsibility to control the cost of health care too. How many of us use tobacco, alcohol and drugs? How many of us are overweight and have not made any non-surgical attempts to control our weight? What about the responsibility of the schools to teach children to not smoke, not use drugs and to live a healthy life style? Would it not be generally agreed upon that wellness and happiness are one in the same? So, what’s our problem?

The answer to that question is probably so complex it would take a lot of writing to answer it. But the skinny answer is that we live in a culture that encourages self-gratification over self-discipline. That’s why we have so many people who show up at the doctor’s office or the emergency room when they could have reduced their health risk by living a more healthy life style.

But in lieu of our culture’s ability to infuse us to be health nuts, we have developed a very expensive health care system that gives us lots of drugs and exotic surgeries to fix us up when we fall apart. And if, in the process of fixing us up, a doctor or hospital makes a mistake and harms us, we get a lawyer and go to court and hope to win a legal lottery-sized award from the judge.

And believe me, your lawyer will also hope you win the gold at the end of the rainbow too, because he is going to reap in a very large percentage of that award. But what about pro bono cases, because, gosh, lawyers are nice people too, right? Let’s be sensible, if lawyers spent any significant amount of time on pro bono cases, they would never make enough money to buy those really nice suits and those incredible cars they drive!

But hey, that’s America!