- When I heard Senator Walsh say:
- Nurses probably do get breaks.
They probably play cards,
for a considerable amount of the day.
- I nearly threw my phone across the room.
But then a little voice in my head said, "Wait!
"What about the context?"
That's what we're talking about
on this week's Wednesday Checkup.
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I was first made aware of this story
by Dr. Mike FTW, my loyal, loyal fan club on Instagram,
which happens to be run by nurses.
When they sent me these quotes of what the senator said,
it got my blood boiling.
You know my feelings on nurses.
I talk about how they're under represented
in these medical dramas.
I talk about how patients don't realize
what an important roll they play.
I know firsthand how overworked they are,
and that they don't get breaks.
I mean, I made a video thanking nurses last year
for nurses week,
because I'm so passionate
about the work that they do.
So when I started seeing colleagues,
my fellow influencers,
media companies, nursing organizations
start posting all this outrage,
I said to myself, that I have to calm down,
and I have to get the full context, get the full story,
so that we can get to the bottom of it together.
Let's get this right off the bat.
I believe Senator Walsh's comments
are being largely mischaracterized.
Guess what?
I mischaracterized them too.
Mainly because the way that they were presented to me
by the media without the entire context.
And I'm gonna read you her full quote,
without erasing what she said before or after,
so we can better understand her remarks.
But before we do that, there's one important point
that we must grasp.
And that is to understand the concept
of a critical access hospital.
Let me paint you a picture.
If you live in a rural,
isolated area of the United States,
you don't have access to health care
because it's so far away from you.
So the federal government gives funding
to these critical access hospitals
to take care of this limited, small population.
The reason the Federal Government does this
is to make sure this small population of people
has access to quality health care.
Now that we understand that point,
let's read the three full sentences,
that Senator Walsh said,
so we can better characterize her comments.
"I understand helping with employees
"and making sure that we have rest breaks
"and things like that,
"but I also understand that we need to care
"for patients, first and foremost.
"And by putting these types of mandates
"on a Critical Access Hospital
"that literally serves a handful of patients -
"I would submit to you those nurses probably do get breaks.
"They probably play cards
"for a considerable amount of the day.
"But the reality is this bill does not apply
"to Critical Access Hospital."
My first takeaway here is that I find her tone
to be very dismissive and harsh
when talking about any nurses.
In fact, it's clear that she's making a lot of assumptions
and stereotyping by saying words like "probably."
Making assumptions when passing a bill is not ideal.
You should have your facts straight.
But my second takeaway here is that
it's clear to me she's not talking about all nurses
playing cards for a considerable amount of time,
or taking many breaks.
- I made that comment again to draw that comparison
between the staffing needs of an urban hospital
versus my little Critical Access Hospitals
in rural Washington.
- She's talking about a very specific group of nurses
that work within the Critical Access Hospital system.
She believes, in the bill that's on the floor,
she believes nurses should have mandated breaks
and rest periods,
but she feels Critical Access Hospitals
should be exempt from that,
because she feels it threatens their financial stability.
That's something we can debate.
We can talk about whether or not Critical Access Hospitals
should be excluded from this rule.
But to mischaracterize her as saying
all nurses just play cards,
or that they take too many breaks,
is just untrue.
In fact, since making those statements on the floor,
Senator Walsh has come out and said that she apologizes,
that she has tremendous respect for what nurses do,
that her mother was a nurse,
she's planning on spending an entire
twelve hour shift with a nurse
to better understand what they do.
I mean, she's doing this because of a petition
that was signed by like 650,000 individuals,
but I think it shows good faith
that she didn't mean anything negative
when talking about nurses.
She was simply advocating on the behalf
of these Critical Access Hospitals.
You may disagree with me,
but I'm a big fan of charitable thinking,
and I think context really does matter.
I don't advise anyone to quickly jump the gun
and villainize somebody based off of a quote
or a sound byte, without truly understanding
the context first.
So the next time that you feel outraged,
let that little voice in your head say,
"what about the context?"
It'll serve you,
and everyone around you,
that much better.
P.S. I know the Senator also made some comments
about nurses working eight verse twelve hour shifts,
also in poor form,
but I thought I'd save that for another video,
if you want me to talk about it.
Because I could talk at length,
on the pros and cons
of working eight verse twelve hour shift.
If you want to see that,
drop it down below in the comments.
And if you want to see how I work with my nurses,
and what I really think about them,
click here for my nurses videos.
And as always, stay happy and healthy.
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