A Grim Outlook on Nursing
I am currently in a
class called "Societal Forces" as a precursor to my first semester of
advanced assessment in the Adult/Gero Primary Care Nurse Practitioner track.
The teachers are passionate and well informed. The speakers are excellent, but
the subject matter...The subject matter is frankly depressing. The class theme
seems to be: "Here is how messed up the system you are entering is. Good luck."
We have heard about unions pricing themselves out of
competitiveness and the changes that may or may not come with the inception of the
Affordable Care Act. Cultural resistance to evidence-based practice. Medicare's
new community health pay guidelines. Rural primary care clinics struggling to
stay solvent. Sequestering measures that go along with the fiscal cliff. The
continuing gap of respect between NPs and doctors. And the pervasive lack of
good management, and systemic waste, at all levels of healthcare.
Being a newly minted RN on an NP track, I think a good
description of me would be naive but outspoken. My optimism is such that when
presented with a half empty glass, I point out that it is full of water and air.
I lean toward a liberalism so broad that I have to change my scrubs twice a day,
lest my bleeding heart show through.
Still, as the snow begins to stick to the ground I find myself
as grey as the sky overhead. Every point made in "Societal Forces" can be backed
up with articles easily found. Message boards I trawl through put this industry
in the grimmest of perspectives.
So, more experienced workers and seasoned professionals,
it's the season of giving. Winter has its grip, but coming is the time of
renewal and rebirth. I am asking for a gift, a boon. Is there anyone out there
who is living a silver lining and would be willing to share? Is all the doom
and gloom I hear about all there is? Help a brother out of this funk!
Happy holidays, everyone! May you never find tinsel in a
nook or cranny where it does not belong!