Okay, this one's a real post. Didn't like the last one? Just bear with me for a moment; I'll take it down eventually. Anyway, just needed to vent, and I'm getting real sick of being known as a really nice guy. (Here's a hint: nice guys don't get laid.) Anywho, here's a couple more quotes from what is rapidly becoming my (non-existent) Facebook profile:
"Willpower and dedication are good words," Roland remarked. "There's a bad one, though, that means the same thing. That one is obsession." --Stephen King, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass.
Gotta love Stephen King. You know, he's another one of those dudes who is much more than what he seems like on the surface. Yeah, he's a horror writer, true dat, and he writes pretty true to form most of the time (read Cell and Duma Key, as his most recent examples). However, how many of you out there knew that Stand By Me (The Body), The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, and The Green Mile are all by Stephen King? Oh, and have you read Lisey's Story yet? If you haven't, now's the time; it's almost Valentine's Day, after all.
Okay, one more:
"If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help them." Tony Benn, former member of the British Parliament, in an interview with Michael Moore in Sicko.
If you haven't seen SiCKO yet, what are you waiting for? Granted, if you are a health-care policy wonk, or just hardcore into health-care policy (wait, that's the same thing), you might find the movie to be a naive, overly simplistic polemic that ultimately won't advance the conversation about health-care reform (just playing Devil's advocate here). For everyone else, you've got to start somewhere, and SiCKO is a pretty good primer for explaining what's wrong with our health-care "system" (for starters, the reason why I have to use quotes is because the "system" is so fragmented that it is practically non-existent). Buy a copy or rent now.
Showing posts with label health care advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care advocacy. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Facebook Migration
I am now in the process of closing my Facebook account, and will be posting links to the stories I had posted there to this blog. Not that I have an audience anyway, but hopefully, someday I shall.
For those of you who will be part of my future audience, I am doing this so that you all know what I really think about things, and to get people to finally respond to me. There is nothing worse than working for hours on something that nobody gives a shit enough about to actually provide feedback. So please, if you are reading any of this, post some goddamned comments, will ya?
The plan here is to post at least one link to a serious story and one not so serious link each blogpost until I run out of things to migrate over.
First, a little something from posted on Alternet , originally posted on In These Times. This one is makes the case that many nursing homes are privatizing in order to avoid regulatory oversight and avoid litigation, and the private owners cut operating costs by cutting staff, which in turn dangerously undermines care and safety of residents. It's well worth a read, especially if you have family members in a long-term care facility of some sort.
Next, on a similar note, a Newshour With Jim Lehrer report on the Green House project. Let's all work together to promote more personalized care for people, and prevent the warehousing of people in poorly run, poorly staffed, poorly maintained facilities which exist primarily to put millions of dollars of profit in the pockets of a few, already rich, businessmen.
Next, on a lighter note, I am posting this Youtube video of Hayley Westenra performing her song "Prayer". No, this does not mean I believe in God or prayer, just that I like the song. Enjoy!
Finally, something completely out of left field. [WARNING: Not safe for work!] I also encourage you to check out the transcript for the rest of Bill Maher's show here; I might not agree with everything he says, but I certainly respect the fact that he is very intelligent, always makes logical (if occasionally flawed) arguments, and is very, very funny. If you are wondering who Trace Adkins is, look no further. (He's also on the Celebrity Apprentice, go figure.)
That's it from me. Feel free to comment on any one of these items; honestly, what's the use of having friends if they won't talk with you?
For those of you who will be part of my future audience, I am doing this so that you all know what I really think about things, and to get people to finally respond to me. There is nothing worse than working for hours on something that nobody gives a shit enough about to actually provide feedback. So please, if you are reading any of this, post some goddamned comments, will ya?
The plan here is to post at least one link to a serious story and one not so serious link each blogpost until I run out of things to migrate over.
First, a little something from posted on Alternet , originally posted on In These Times. This one is makes the case that many nursing homes are privatizing in order to avoid regulatory oversight and avoid litigation, and the private owners cut operating costs by cutting staff, which in turn dangerously undermines care and safety of residents. It's well worth a read, especially if you have family members in a long-term care facility of some sort.
Next, on a similar note, a Newshour With Jim Lehrer report on the Green House project. Let's all work together to promote more personalized care for people, and prevent the warehousing of people in poorly run, poorly staffed, poorly maintained facilities which exist primarily to put millions of dollars of profit in the pockets of a few, already rich, businessmen.
Next, on a lighter note, I am posting this Youtube video of Hayley Westenra performing her song "Prayer". No, this does not mean I believe in God or prayer, just that I like the song. Enjoy!
Finally, something completely out of left field. [WARNING: Not safe for work!] I also encourage you to check out the transcript for the rest of Bill Maher's show here; I might not agree with everything he says, but I certainly respect the fact that he is very intelligent, always makes logical (if occasionally flawed) arguments, and is very, very funny. If you are wondering who Trace Adkins is, look no further. (He's also on the Celebrity Apprentice, go figure.)
That's it from me. Feel free to comment on any one of these items; honestly, what's the use of having friends if they won't talk with you?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Heh, it's been too long.
Oh well, I guess I really haven't been keeping up with this blog. Actually having way too much fun playing around with my Facebook profile - in fact, I've kind of been treating the updates as a form of micro-blogging. Total time-waster, and way too much fun; looks like I'll have to exile myself from there for a little while until I catch up on the schoolwork.
Anyway, I've been busy with school and trying to find myself a part-time job. I'm surprised to say that I miss working. Time was, when I still working as a pharmacist, that was just something I did, and I could just go home afterwards, unless I was on-call that night which meant I couldn't completely switch off. These days as a nurse, well, it's a pretty big part of my identity now, and I feel like I've lost a huge chunk of it since I left the old job. Nursing has always been more than just a job for me, but an extension of who I really am; in other words, I got to express my true self, within professional limits, in the course of providing patient care. I love the feeling of satisfaction of doing the job well and feeling like I actually made a difference in someone's life. (Conversely, I'd feel like a failure when things didn't go as well. Not every day can be good.) Oh well, if the job search doesn't go well, I guess I can always negotiate my old job back, and hopefully they'll actually let me work part-time.
I've been busy getting some work done on a patient advocacy campaign I've been working on, on the side. Basically, I've been trying to spread awareness about abuses of elderly residents of nursing homes taken over by private equity firms, which then make millions in short-term profit for themselves and their investors by cutting nursing staff and supplies budgets. What that translates into is a major safety issue, as there are now not enough staff to monitor certain residents who need more care, thus increasing the risk for falls, broken bones, pressure ulcers, and general declines in health. Not to mention stressing the hell out of the staff that are left, thus leading to burn-out and possible loss of temper and abuse. What really gets me, is that these companies avoid being accountable by setting up these complex business arrangements in a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to establish who really owns a facility and thus who can be sued when something goes wrong. You can read more about it here.
So basically, since this issue hasn't really been getting the attention it deserves in the media - due in no small part to the focus on SCHIP and the California wildfires and the Iraq Ware, all worthy subjects to focus on, don't get me wrong - I've been trying to get more people to pay attention to it. Hence, the cause I started on Facebook. Kind of embarrassing that I haven't gotten any of my friends to join it, but then again, compared to larger issues like getting out of Iraq in a timely and safe manner, stopping further global warming, and supporting breast cancer research, my cause probably doesn't seem so important.
Still, if anyone is reading this, please read the New York Times article, and see what you feel like afterwards. If you're fired up and feel like doing something, please write to the editors of your local newspapers and to your local, state, and Congressional representatives and urge them to pay attention! If you write to your governmental representatives, ask them to do something about the abuses, tell them to enforce the law and/or create new legislation to bring more transparency and accountability to nursing home management. Nursing home residents will thank you for doing this, if they find out; even if the effort fails, at least we all tried. Just because they're older and institutionalized doesn't mean we get to forget about them and let them be treated as less than human.
Anyway, I've written enough for now. Time to do a little more research; I'm getting ready to bring up certain issues when Governor Rendell visits my "town" on Friday. Hopefully, that too will help the cause. Wish me luck!
Anyway, I've been busy with school and trying to find myself a part-time job. I'm surprised to say that I miss working. Time was, when I still working as a pharmacist, that was just something I did, and I could just go home afterwards, unless I was on-call that night which meant I couldn't completely switch off. These days as a nurse, well, it's a pretty big part of my identity now, and I feel like I've lost a huge chunk of it since I left the old job. Nursing has always been more than just a job for me, but an extension of who I really am; in other words, I got to express my true self, within professional limits, in the course of providing patient care. I love the feeling of satisfaction of doing the job well and feeling like I actually made a difference in someone's life. (Conversely, I'd feel like a failure when things didn't go as well. Not every day can be good.) Oh well, if the job search doesn't go well, I guess I can always negotiate my old job back, and hopefully they'll actually let me work part-time.
I've been busy getting some work done on a patient advocacy campaign I've been working on, on the side. Basically, I've been trying to spread awareness about abuses of elderly residents of nursing homes taken over by private equity firms, which then make millions in short-term profit for themselves and their investors by cutting nursing staff and supplies budgets. What that translates into is a major safety issue, as there are now not enough staff to monitor certain residents who need more care, thus increasing the risk for falls, broken bones, pressure ulcers, and general declines in health. Not to mention stressing the hell out of the staff that are left, thus leading to burn-out and possible loss of temper and abuse. What really gets me, is that these companies avoid being accountable by setting up these complex business arrangements in a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to establish who really owns a facility and thus who can be sued when something goes wrong. You can read more about it here.
So basically, since this issue hasn't really been getting the attention it deserves in the media - due in no small part to the focus on SCHIP and the California wildfires and the Iraq Ware, all worthy subjects to focus on, don't get me wrong - I've been trying to get more people to pay attention to it. Hence, the cause I started on Facebook. Kind of embarrassing that I haven't gotten any of my friends to join it, but then again, compared to larger issues like getting out of Iraq in a timely and safe manner, stopping further global warming, and supporting breast cancer research, my cause probably doesn't seem so important.
Still, if anyone is reading this, please read the New York Times article, and see what you feel like afterwards. If you're fired up and feel like doing something, please write to the editors of your local newspapers and to your local, state, and Congressional representatives and urge them to pay attention! If you write to your governmental representatives, ask them to do something about the abuses, tell them to enforce the law and/or create new legislation to bring more transparency and accountability to nursing home management. Nursing home residents will thank you for doing this, if they find out; even if the effort fails, at least we all tried. Just because they're older and institutionalized doesn't mean we get to forget about them and let them be treated as less than human.
Anyway, I've written enough for now. Time to do a little more research; I'm getting ready to bring up certain issues when Governor Rendell visits my "town" on Friday. Hopefully, that too will help the cause. Wish me luck!
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