We have all dealt with chronic care patients who keep coming back to the hospital because they have COPD and refuse to stop smoking, have CHF but can't be bothered to be compliant with their medications, or they are ESRD but they won't change their lifestyle, yet expect to be rescued whenever they eat a bucket of chicken while drinking a case of soda but can't make their dialysis appointment.
A more experienced nurse told me in my first two years of nursing that she thought 20% of the population used 80% of hospital and healthcare resources. I admit my dentist has used every tactic to try to get me to floss daily... what can I say? Some habits are best learned when very young - I just can't get it done. That point being, that even intelligent people (me...LOL) can't always be made to follow a long term treatment plan if the risk of not following it, doesn't feel real.
Covid antivaxxers... I am sorry to say I am all dystopian fantasy about this. It is all those chronic illness frustrations rolled into risk of death in the fast lane scenario. I am nearly radicalized. I think that anyone who refuses to mask, get vaccinated, wash their hands while propagating myths about fake news should be required to get a special tattoo.
Then when they show up in the ED with Covid symptoms, and test positive... we ask to see the spot where the tattoo is mandated to be placed. When it proves they are fake news antivaxxers... they are escorted out of the hospital by a team in space suits to "the fairgrounds". The fairgrounds has a fence and armed guards and plenty of organic food, water, shelter, sleeping arrangements.... no phones, no computers, no Fox News, no radio.... make them be inside their own heads. Have them reassure each other it isn't real until those around them die. If they actually survive and can agree to be vaccinated before being released... then they can be released.
My county is full of fake news people. We have a vaccination rate of 49% county wide. Covid admissions are up in the region and at our hospital. We don't have that big of a hospital. Having 8-11 Covid cases is a lot for us. 2 of the 12 ICU beds and the nurses caring for them is a lot.
You don't believe Covid is real? Then we will allow you to continue with your thoughts and beliefs when you contract it, you will battle it alone at "the fairgrounds". Yes visitors are welcome... but if they enter, they cannot leave.
Seriously... we need the right to refuse to serve those who threaten our lives and families. They expect to be saved? Darwinian ideas full scale. We are only interfering with it when we try to save these idiots.
Many people don't like lifting morbidly obese people, taking care of COPDers who smoked all their life, or those who are alcoholics. When HIV was rampant, one needle stick could mean one's life, yet we were expected to take care of patients without regard to our own life. If you truly feel you don't want to take care of people who make a different choice than yours, perhaps you need to reconsider your "job"...or "field". This is not nazi Germany. We never know what we're dealing with whether it be Covid, MRSA, VRSA, monkey pox that was just recently brought into the U.S., etc. More than 7,000 people who crossed the border ILLEGALLY into Texas THIS WEEK have now tested positive for Covid. How is it that we refuse our own but willingly accept the views of unlawful people? Geez, what a country we've become. One person I know who doesn't want the vaccine has a history of Guillain-Barre. I CERTAINLY don't blame this person for not wanting the vaccine. It's most assuredly on the list from big pharma of "do not take" with this hx. In addition, no thought has been given to the fact that if someone is hospitalized with side effects from the vaccine they may not be able to pay their very high deductible or pay at all if they are uninsured. There's much more to this anti-vax situation that meets the eye. Perhaps stop criticizing and explore with people why they're not getting the vaccine. We've had a dismal healthcare system for years. Perhaps if we had a care-driven system versus money-driven system, the scenario would be very different right now.
You think we're short staffed now?? Wait until all the healthcare systems mandate it and force those of us who refuse it out. "Good!" You say?? OK. Fine.
On top of that, 50% of new nurses are leaving the bedside within 2 years. Not because of covid , but because of how horrible working conditions.
By your way of thinking, then any frequent flier who is non-compliant should be turned away for "wasting resources".
I get it. You're scared, you see people sick and dying. I do too, but it needs to remain a choice. It's hard to not get frustrated when you can't control the people and situations around you, but if you continue to let yourself think and feel this way, you run the risk of losing your humanity.
This is not just a harmless rant, this is dangerous and AllNurses should not allow it.
Yes, I empathize with the frustration. And sure, maybe there is an argument for leaving science deniers who are endangering the general public in a dystopian “campgrounds,” though the same could be said about other groups of people that we choose to care for as nurses.
But once you allow this kind of power over one group, it will soon enough be used to segregate other groups as well. This is truly a dangerous rhetoric and it should not even be entertained as a frustrated “rant.”
I don't care if you "think" you're a wonderful super hero nurse, your job is to care for each patient with the best care and respect. Remember your nursing oath....
Get off your high horse, patients are people, do your job and care for them! You don't have the right to judge why anyone is not getting this emergency vaccine...thats not your place...maybe your in the wrong vocation....either way, if you can't do your job compassionately, get out, fast, go....I wouldn't want you caring for any of my family.....Scary!
Thoughts from a recently retired nurse of 37 years
This is not just a harmless rant, this is dangerous and AllNurses should not allow it.
It's a rant on a nursing site. If you read the subsequent discussion nobody is advocating for this in real life. Conflating into the discussion the morbidly obese and smokers are simply strawman arguments. The truly dangerous stuff is the misinformation and conspiracy theories being posted from people who have just joined.
It's a rant on a nursing site. If you read the subsequent discussion nobody is advocating for this in real life. Conflating into the discussion the morbidly obese and smokers are simply strawman arguments The dangerous stuff is the misinformation and conspiracy theories being posted from people who have just joined.
No, you cannot talk about such a dangerous idea and not understand how it could eventually become reality - we are nurses and our opinions are valued by the public. We cannot talk like this.
This pandemic minimally compares to HIV as there were no vaccines that could help during that time. Thank God for the medical advances available to these patients now. But don't be fooled, health care providers and the public were much more vicious towards HIV than COVID. There were definitely nurses and doctors who left the bedside because they didn’t want to get sick. There were nurses and doctors who refused to work with these patients. The infected were extremely ostracized by the public. It has been and continues to be a horrible situation for those impacted by HIV. Some were jailed for knowingly and unknowingly passing the virus to someone.
Since the comparison is being used to HIV, how about we use the same laws as punishment for transmission/death. The vaccine works to prevent death and reduce transmission, almost like a prophylactic condom and PREP. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I am happy to hear that the insurance companies are considering increased premiums and other financial implications for not receiving the vaccine.
Additionally, most of us are aware that some people cannot get the vaccine for some legit reason or another. We advocate for their right to choose.
I still believe the unvaccinated should go to special hospitals and schools where they are cared for and taught by other unvaccinated people. They can wear their masks and etc as they choose. Hopefully the virus doesn’t mutate too much. Maybe then we’ll reach heard immunity. They will all develop antibodies and we’ll all be vaccinated.
Seriously? That's where it begins. This post shouldn't even be allowed.
Yes. Labeling dangerous speech as a rant doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Does anyone realize that minorities are getting vaccinated at a much lower rate than whites? This is the talk of segregation. STOP NOW.
Retriever5280
36 Posts
Many people don't like lifting morbidly obese people, taking care of COPDers who smoked all their life, or those who are alcoholics. When HIV was rampant, one needle stick could mean one's life, yet we were expected to take care of patients without regard to our own life. If you truly feel you don't want to take care of people who make a different choice than yours, perhaps you need to reconsider your "job"...or "field". This is not nazi Germany. We never know what we're dealing with whether it be Covid, MRSA, VRSA, monkey pox that was just recently brought into the U.S., etc. More than 7,000 people who crossed the border ILLEGALLY into Texas THIS WEEK have now tested positive for Covid. How is it that we refuse our own but willingly accept the views of unlawful people? Geez, what a country we've become. One person I know who doesn't want the vaccine has a history of Guillain-Barre. I CERTAINLY don't blame this person for not wanting the vaccine. It's most assuredly on the list from big pharma of "do not take" with this hx. In addition, no thought has been given to the fact that if someone is hospitalized with side effects from the vaccine they may not be able to pay their very high deductible or pay at all if they are uninsured. There's much more to this anti-vax situation that meets the eye. Perhaps stop criticizing and explore with people why they're not getting the vaccine. We've had a dismal healthcare system for years. Perhaps if we had a care-driven system versus money-driven system, the scenario would be very different right now.