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PERSPECTIVE |
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PREVIOUS Shifting
the Focus Building
a Workforce Changing
Direction In
Appreciation A
Healthy 2000 Robo-care Spread
the Word An
Army of Advocates What Price Youth? Scientific advances offer a glimpse at longevity |
My blood pressure is higher than I want it. My weight and cholesterol are up. There’s stress in old job situations that didn’t use to cause me stress. The same-old-same-old is getting old. Is my boss’s demand for more quality using less resources taking its toll on me? Is health care making me sick? Is it making you sick? Could be. In the year 2000, Yogi Berra’s statement, "The future isn’t what it used to be," is truer than he ever intended. As a new graduate back in the ’60s, I didn’t give the year 2000 a great deal of thought. Y2K wasn’t in the vocabulary. The only concern I had about 2000 was what they were going to call 20th Century Fox. Twenty-first Century Fox? Strange. Today, we are forced to adapt to changes in language, technology and job roles easily under the guise of accepting what we call the "paradigm shift." I am old enough to remember that paradigms used to mean two 10-cent pieces. I am also old enough to remember the days when health care was a phrase that represented the rendering of service to promote physical, mental and spiritual well-being in others. As a nurse, my role was to give others the benefit of knowledge, experience and skills acquired from the profession’s scientific body of my knowledge. The operative word there was "give." As nurses, I think we have all been groomed and primed to give—often until it hurts—without asking for anything in return. As my profession and I have matured, there has been increasing emphasis on what I get in return for my giving. Hospitals have given me a decent salary, benefits plans, night shift differentials and—in the case of one particular employer—even my birthday off with pay. So why does giving until it hurts seem to hurt so much more today than in the past? Part of the answer is obvious: I am older today. The other part of the answer is that the business of health care is different. Today, the relationship between employer and employee (in all fields) is changing. The employer and I no longer will have a my-brother-is-my-keeper relationship. My relationship with the employer will be much the same as consultant to client. In other words, I bring my bag of tricks (nursing knowledge, skills and experience) to the buyer (formerly know as the employer). In return, I am paid a fee. The shift differential, health benefits and Nurse Day tote bags adorned with a hospital logo will be history. Therapy for me is to get rid of my employee/victim mentality. I will need to face facts and realize that no matter what I do as a nurse, I am Richard Brock Enterprises. As a consultant, I may serve many in a variety of venues and ways. To serve others, I will serve myself first by managing my own healthcare "business." Shift-diffs and tote bags alone do not a healthy nurse make. Richard
Brock, MA, RN |