Did Hillary really say nurses are glorified sitters ?..... No fact to support

PadawanLearner · Feb 6, 2008

Did she say it? Dunno.

Would it be something I could see her saying? Yep.

She's a politician. Politicians will always say whatever they think their audience at the time wants to hear. A presidential candidate can say whatever he/she wants to and promise to do anything under the sun, but when it really comes down to it unless it's something he/she can write an executive order for, it's pretty meaningless since it has to make it through Congress first.

Hasn't she already been President for eight years?

banditrn · Feb 6, 2008

Did she say it? Dunno.
Would it be something I could see her saying? Yep.
She's a politician. Politicians will always say whatever they think their audience at the time wants to hear. A presidential candidate can say whatever he/she wants to and promise to do anything under the sun, but when it really comes down to it unless it's something he/she can write an executive order for, it's pretty meaningless since it has to make it through Congress first.
Hasn't she already been President for eight years?

I agree Padawan. She has a habit of flip-flopping on statements, especially when she's brought up on one of them. Just like drivers licenses for illegals - first, she was FOR them, then she was AGAINST them, then for them, yet during the one debate, she denied being for them. I can't really believe anything that comes out of her mouth.

At least with Obama, he was honest about it and didn't lie about his feelings.

SeychelleRN · Feb 6, 2008

OK, there are a lot of people at work saying that at some time Hillary Clinton said that nurses pay is way too high and that they are just glorified baby sitters. Has any one else heard this. I've looked at may sights on her and can't find it. If she did say that, it needs to be made known. Nurses are a large voting population. I hope for her sake she didn't say that. Is that part of her medical reform plan ? :angryfire :pumpiron:

I don't think so. There has been a lot of twisting of the candidates words lately. Click on these links to hear what Senator Clinton said:

Hillary Clinton on Health Care

Here is what Senator Obama is saying:

Obama on Health Care

:prdnrs:

CaptGaston · Feb 6, 2008

Am I just that old, or is it that I am just one of these people who retains such information. When a President's wife said something so demeaning to my profession, I just do not forget it!! Lets go way back to the 90's and when her father was dying in St. Vincent Infermary after having a stroke. It was April of 1993. She and her daughter spend some 16 days @ his bedside as he deteriorated. Of course, upon her return she decided she was going to nationalize healthcare. She made several great statements at this time.. such as " the last 6 months of someone's life is the most expensive... " and I am sure that if the President's Father in Law is lying in Your Hospital every administrator, doctor, and Legal team member is going to be checking on him, so she saw the nursing staff as under utilized in her case so she made that comment of nurses being over paid and underworked as this was all coming to an end. I will research it for you folks later tonight, because I should be sleeping right now.. going to work tonight.:zzzzz....

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2008

Let's face it: RNs are the largest catergory of healthcare workers, as they comprise a bloc of over 2.5 million people in America. Another category of nurses, LPNs/LVNs, comprise over 750,000 of healthcare workers across the nation.

If something of this nature were truly said about nurses by a major political figure, I think we all would have remembered it clearly and concisely. In addition, her political foes would have been sure to smear it in her face over and over again like a dog poop turd so that everyone would know about it.

Here's my assessment: I doubt she made this silly remark.

CaptGaston · Feb 6, 2008

Obviously I am one of those people who was old enough to remember such a statement, and others have not. We easily forget what political statements were made 1, 5 , 10 , 15 years ago... It is one of the problems of our society. Our short term memory erases what happen in the past.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2008

Nursing care is a huge expense for hospitals and other healthcare entities.

While nursing is an expense to hospitals and healthcare facilities, these entities could not exist without nurses.

Healthcare would crumble to the ground in America so quickly without the presence of nurses. Therefore, these hospitals and other facilities would do best to keep paying the expenses for nursing.

James Huffman · Feb 6, 2008

i have heard that statement .. but i can't find where it came from either... does anyone know?? one of the doctors at work said hillary said that nurses will have pay cuts and we will be working for min wage if she gets elected. of course the doc is on vaction now so i can't ask him... hillary needs to walk a day in our shoes...

Good grief, I cannot STAND Hillary Clinton, but this is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks that Sen. Clinton said this just doesn't understand how politicians operate. A Google search with the question reveals no source of this alleged quote, just some bloggers repeating the rumor. 1 in 40 American women are nurses. I can guarantee that no politician -- especially not one as skilled as Clinton -- will say anything to offend that large a group.

As to the minimum wage question: since when does the US President dictate nurses' salaries? And where does the doc who supposedly said this get this information? We as a professional group need to have some common sense about idiot rumors like this.

As to Sen. Clinton needing to "walk a day in our shoes": no, she doesn't. She's not a nurse. She can't walk in our shoes. If elected this fall, her job would be president, not some mega-director of nursing services.

TiredMD · Feb 6, 2008

I wouldn't be surprised if proponents of universal healthcare wanted nursing wages to go down. This is a very real problem. Nursing care is a huge expense for hospitals and other healthcare entities.

The way I read these proposals, my suspicion is that the current plans floated by the Democrats (mandatory private health insurance) won't impact salaries all that much. It will be a big strain on consumers who previously haven't purchased health insurance. It is also a big giveaway to the insurance companies, who will have a big influx of new mandatory customers, most of whom are younger and healthier than the average American with insurance. These plans, which primarily focus on industry solutions, won't do much of anything to control costs, so we'll all likely get away without much of a pay cut.

Single payer, as I read it, would be a whole different story . . .

Simplepleasures · Feb 6, 2008

The way I read these proposals, my suspicion is that the current plans floated by the Democrats (mandatory private health insurance) won't impact salaries all that much. It will be a big strain on consumers who previously haven't purchased health insurance. It is also a big giveaway to the insurance companies, who will have a big influx of new mandatory customers, most of whom are younger and healthier than the average American with insurance. These plans, which primarily focus on industry solutions, won't do much of anything to control costs, so we'll all likely get away without much of a pay cut.
Single payer, as I read it, would be a whole different story . . .

Exactly why we should not mandate buying health insurance, why reward the health insurance companies for all the years of bad corporate behavior ? Single payer is the only way to go and maybe Obama can come up with something better than mandating the buying of health insurance.

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Feb 6, 2008

Somehow I doubt the Senator made this remark. Her husbands mother was a nurse. There maybe some sort of statement out there about better utilization of health care and the professional who work in facilities. But she does not seem so stupid as to slap our profession in the face and then get an endorsement by the ANA.

Miss Mab · Feb 6, 2008

Let's face it: RNs are the largest catergory of healthcare workers, as they comprise a bloc of over 2.5 million people in America. Another category of nurses, LPNs/LVNs, comprise over 750,000 of healthcare workers across the nation.
If something of this nature were truly said about nurses by a major political figure, I think we all would have remembered it clearly and concisely. In addition, her political foes would have been sure to smear it in her face over and over again like a dog poop turd so that everyone would know about it.
Here's my assessment: I doubt she made this silly remark.

Actually, Commuter, those foes have found making unsubstantiated claims such as this to be much more effective than dealing with reality.

This new thing "well I heard so and so say (blah blah) and on it goes through the internet and the watercooler until the,um, let's call it ignorant, people just take it as fact and continue the telephone game.

It's actually a fairly effective tactic based on how many people fall for this type of thing. It's also dirty politics. The real shame is it only works because so many Americans are ill informed themselves and won't do the work necessary to become informed.

Nah, much easier to believe Obama is a muslim or McCain fathered that illigitimate black child instead.

What REALLY annoys me is when people throw this kind of stuff out as just another "innocent" question.......

UH HUH.....

and 10 thousand more people get to read it who hadn't heard it before.......yup, effective...just tacky.....