Darned healthcare funding...

[Guest Ian Wong]

Okay, just got to rant a bit here, and perhaps get the word out a little. The message is regarding the recent BC job action by nurses, and hospital technologists, in search of better hours and higher wages.

 

The health-care team isn't just a concept that sounds really good on admissions essays, or television news. It's a reality. As a doctor, the care you provide your patients is only as good as not only your own work, but also the efforts of the nurses, lab techs, physio/OT rehab, social work, administrators, and cleaning staff.

 

Without any of those components, the quality of your care drops dramatically, or can even grind to a halt. Imagine trying to treat a diabetic patient complaining of fever and dizziness on the wards. Without nurses to draw up blood values, or start IV's, or lab techs to check WBC and electrolyte values, your ability to evaluate and manage a patient's condition stalls completely. Sure, you could start an IV yourself, and run the blood draw down to the lab, but what about the other 13 patients on the ward? You simply don't have the luxury of that kind of time to dedicate to each patient.

 

Try treating a patient with osteoporosis after a hip fracture requiring a new hip joint. Good luck getting that patient ambulatory and functional once again in society without the heavy use of the Radiology techs, OR techs and nurses, ward care during surgical recovery, and then rehabilitation and retraining through the physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Perhaps a consult to social work will be necessary to arrange home care, and a referral to the dietitian to create a more "bone-friendly diet."

 

As a result, each member of the healthcare team is highly dependant on each other, with students often being reliant on everyone else for their education. Unfortunately, as a medical student, particularly one in the clinical years of teaching, any sort of job action by other members of the health care team also leaves the students out in the cold. For example, this morning I was scheduled to scrub in on a morning of Ortho elective surgeries, including arthroscopy of knees, some tendon troubles, etc. This entire slate of operations was cancelled due to job actions.

 

As a student, I can only learn through experience in observing and then later participating in patient management and care. Without the other support staff present, I can't learn effectively (heck, I'm here typing on the computer now, rather than being in the OR). To broaden the scope a little, this also affects any other health care students in other disciplines, if they are unable to come in and work, including nursing, rehab, tech, and other students.

 

It's rather ironic that a job action which is protesting long hours and frequent overtime is itself depriving the education of those incoming students who can help alleviate some of the short-handedness in the health care field.

 

In either event, I think the nurses and other hospital techs need to do what they need to do. Without doubt, it has raised public awareness as to the under-funding/mis-allocation of our health care spending, which can only be a positive in the long term. I just hope that my education doesn't suffer as a result, because that also has long-term implications for future patient care.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest YongQ]

I have nowhere near the passion for the subject as you do, but I gather that'll change in the next few years. I totally disagree with the nursing strike and think it's ludicrous that they turn down every deal that comes to them until they reach their magic $41 figure. The government already matched Alberta, and the union said "It's not enough - 'competitive pay' means someone's got to win, right?" (or something to that effect, I don't have it in front of me right now) - well, I totally disagree with that - you can compete against others and have everybody lose out. Unfortunately in this case it's the general public who lose out. As a volunteer at various hospitals in Vancouver, I can definitely say that patients aren't getting the care they need. And it isn't because of anyone's neglect, it's because of the sheer lack of manpower, and the undue stubbornness of one union. Don't get me wrong, I totally respect nurses, PTs, OTs, and all other healthcare professionals but this has gone far enough.

[Guest Akane200]

Being out in Ontario, I am not very clear on the terms that the nurses are rejecting. However, there is a need to pay health professionals with pay that is fair.

 

If they are paid less than nurses in other provinces, I feel that they should have there salaries raised to be on par with the other provinces. Same should be said of other health professionals.

 

If they are paid less, nurses will move out of the province or down to the states and the crisis in health care will be accentuated. This was the situation that happened in Ontario in the mid 1990's. Nurses were cut, or forced to take lower wages and heavier workloads. The result of all this is that there is an even larger crisis happening today due to the short sighted actions of the provincial gov't to reap the short term gains. The costs to the health care system is even larger than what you can see on the wards. It's what you can't see. That many of the youngest and brightest have left for the states (lost of productive capacity, in economic terms). There definitely is a brain drain, and it's real no matter how much the government denies it's existance.

 

While it seems unreasonable that job action was taken only 13 days into the term for the new government of BC, I feel that it is wrong for them to try to force the nurses back to working more via legislation. They should have had a negotiated agreement to return to work and give the new government time to work with them. In this whole ordeal, there seem to be no winners, especially for the patients.