Pushing drugs for the Man bother anyone?

Jo Dirt · Oct 31, 2007

I think drugs are way overprescribed nowadays and it makes me sick to see people, especially old ones (people want to know who is really exploiting the elderly they need to look at the healthcare system and the government in this country) taking hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars worth of (placebo) pills every month. I'm not saying drugs can't be a wonderful thing but if you are to the point (in most cases) where you "need" 5+ prescriptions a day...that is just ridiculous. But it is easy to start the dominos falling over because so many drugs have S/E that require another drug to alleviate that S/E and yet another drug to help with the S/E of the drug that alleviates the S/E of the drug you are taking and it just turns into a spinning merry-go-round you will never get off. And I have yet to go to a doctor's office where there wasn't a drug rep hovering around the front desk pushing some kind of snake oil or other junk.

Right now I have a private duty patient who takes meds all day long, and when you have SIX pages for their MAR which has 6 meds per sheet that is bordering on insanity. And with all the vitamins on I can't believe she doesn't have hypervitaminosis and other toxic build up from all that junk.

Some will say, since you have such a problem with medicine you need to find another line of work. No, I don't need to find another line of work. There is a lot more to nursing and working in healthcare than shoving pills (most of them unneccesary, I'd bet a year's salary on it, I'm so sure) down someone's throat.

So, yes, it bothers me a lot. I can't tell you how many times in the nursing home we would have patient's fading out or so loopy they couldn't tell which way was up and they improved drastically when another doctor took over their care and took them off most of their medication. I'm leary of any doctor who has his Rx pad pulled out when he comes in to see you. We have a good family doctor right now who won't prescribe anything unless it is absolutely necessary, God bless him.

That being said, I don't think the attitude that a good diet is a cure all or can even take care of a lot of disease processes is accurate, either. In fact, I know from experience that idea is erroneous (hope I spelled that right). Sometimes, a person's body will start to malfunction and while a diet can help in some cases, people also need to be able to accept when diet, pills (whether homeopathic herbs or synthetic) is not enough and that is life. There can't be a cure or solution for everything under the Sun. You have to learn how to deal with it and understand that if Grandma lives to be 80 years old and dies peacefully in her sleep one night we don't call the lawyer the next day to find out what the doctor didn't do...Grandma was OLD!!!

This country needs an enema, the enema of reality.

Jo Dirt · Oct 31, 2007

:yeahthat:
:lol2: I was thinking that too. It's rather dated.
:smokin::smokin:

But I think that expression is kind of hip.

CHATSDALE · Oct 31, 2007

perhaps you would be happier workig as a dietitian or a masseuse,

health care is a multi-tract job

excuse me, but i may be too close to view this objectively

my dtr is in line for trials for hep-c [obtained via blood transfustion not poor choices] if they are successful in treating her it will be a result of lots of money, man-hours, expensive lab equipment

i don't consider anyone the 'MAN' we all have jobs to do..doctors, researchers, volunteers in trials, nurses who observe new drugs for side effects,

RN1989 · Oct 31, 2007

If people were willing to take responsibility for their own lives by living clean, healthy lifestyles, pharmaceutical companies would already be halfway out of business. I don't like how pharmaceutical companies do some of their business, but as long as people want to abdicate all responsibility for their own health and demand a quick fix, then someone is going to profit from it.

Think about things this way - If people didn't do stupid things that were bad for them, fewer nurses would be needed and you might be out of a job.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Oct 31, 2007

So simplistic. Wish I could diet away my Type I diabetes.

leslie :-D · Oct 31, 2007

maybe the bottom line for the Man, is profit.

but pts continue to profit more.

no issues here.

leslie

luvschoolnursing, LPN · Oct 31, 2007

What happened to the OP? Seems like he/she posted and then stood back to see if there were fireworks. When I worked in the hospital, I liked the pens, too. Also post it notes, magnets, lanyards....no wonder the pharmas charge so much!!! :lol2:

nurz2be · Oct 31, 2007

Hello All.
I'm a newbie taking prereqs for a BSN.
I just have one big nagging concern keeping me from fully committing to the program. I want to help people, but I feel that the western allopathic way of surgery/drugs is often very harmful (although sometimes needed in cases of trauma etc).
Does pushing drugs for the giant pharmaceuticals bother anyone out there in the nurse world? I just don't know if I could live with myself doing it all day when I know that many problems could be solved simply by diet change etc.
Please enlighten me!

Maybe then you should consider a career as a Nutritionist or in Holistic medicine. If you have ever seen someone, especially a small child, in the throws of a asthma attack, where they can't breathe and just a little puff on a inhaler takes them literally from the brink of death, or the grandpa out with his grandkids having a heart attack with the little ones watching takes a nitro tab and within a few minutes those little ones have their grandpa back. THOSE are the moments you hold on to. Those are the times you realize how BIG medicine, as a practice, is. Yes pharmaceutical companies do a lot that is what some would call immoral or unethical, but they save lives. Period. We as care providers first do no harm, then we are there to save lives by whatever means necessary.

I hope you can make peace with these issues before you decide to take on the role of a care provider. When time is of the essence action has to happen or someone WILL die.

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · Oct 31, 2007

What happened to the OP? Seems like he/she posted and then stood back to see if there were fireworks.

Hmm, where is the OP??? This is starting to sound familiar...

Anyhow, is diet and exercise going to help my seizing pt? Or when I IVP adenosine to my pt, will it help me there? I don't think so.

I'm starting to smell a T......no, no. I can't say it. I always get in trouble for that word.....But I'm always suspicious of 1 time posters with strange topics. I think my first post was something like, "hi, I'm new..."

OP, it's time to redeem yourself! Time to get involved in this thread that you started.

BBFRN, BSN, PhD · Oct 31, 2007

I think you guys may be right. These things always start with some kind of 'ethical issue' that really isn't an ethical issue.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Oct 31, 2007

Doesn't really bother me.

If there is something - such as postpartum cramping - that might indeed be alleviated by something other than a pill - i.e., a heating pad, I offer that to my patients. (And it is in the orders.) Often it works better than even a Percocet.

I have no problem with 'alternative medicine' or natural remedies. Sometime they work really well and sometimes they don't, just like any 'Western' medication.

That said, I have a way bigger issue with sending new babies home with parents who have proven over and over again that they do not deserve to procreate.

jmgrn65, RN · Oct 31, 2007

i don't think you mean allopathic, considering that most mds are allopathic doctors. i think you mean holiopathic (sp?).

fyi

cant find a meaning for holipathic but can for homipathic

homeopathy (also homœopathy or homoeopathy; from the greek, ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar" + πάθος, páthos, "suffering" or "disease") is a form of alternative medicine, postulated in the late 18th century by german physician samuel hahnemann.[1] homeopathy is a vitalist therapy, claiming to act by treating imbalances in a hypothetical vital force.

some medical dictionaries define the term allopathy or allopathic medicine as the treatment of disease using conventional medical therapies, as opposed to the use of alternative medical or non-conventional therapies.