I've been called the beach 1000 times.
>> I knocked up or.
>> Get the f out of his room, UFAN word.
>> I've been bitten.
>> Choked punched in the mouth.
>> I had a guy tried to kick me in my stomach while I was pregnant.
>> That poor nurse at your bedside, it's probably been through hell.
>> The individuals you just heard from our America's frontline nurses, individuals
who of course, over the last two years, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Have dealt with an extreme level of abuse
by unruly patients, by individuals who
feel entitled to anything and everything.
But something that seems to be misconstrued in the media is this notion
that everything has always been hunky dory for America's nurses up until Covid.
But the reality is our for profit hospital model has essentially
been a huge problem for our frontline nurses for decades.
And the coronavirus pandemic has only compounded the problem.
The New York times put together in my opinion and an incredible video that
speaks to the actual nurses to really get to the heart of this for-profit model.
And why it has continued to be such a big problem, especially during a pandemic.
But again, let me just repeat pandemic or no pandemic hospitals were already
incredibly understaffed when it came to nurses.
And that meant that each nurse had
just too many patients in order to provide adequate care.
So with that said with that context,
why don't we go to the first video where I think the statements from these nurses
really do matter to kind of cut through the nonsense.
We keep hearing about the media,
especially when it comes to how Covid is really the problem here.
>> The biggest force that's driving nurses away greedy hospitals.
I could no longer work in critical care under the conditions I was being
forced to work under with poor staffing, and that's when I left.
To maximize profits, American hospitals have been intentionally
understaffing nurses for decades, long before the pandemic.
What the hospital industry doesn't want you to know is that there's never
been more licensed nurses in America, hospitals just aren't hiring them.
>> There's not a shortage of nurses.
There's just a shortage of nurses willing to work under those conditions.
>> If you don't have enough nurses, patients will die,
they will become sicker and they will die.
>> If you're in the hospital, your chances of dying go up by 7% for
every additional patient your nurse has to care for.
>> Now, we've been hearing about this nursing shortage.
We've been hearing about nurses resigning from the work that they've dedicated their
lives to.
In fact, a recent survey indicates that about 40% of the nurses who
are currently employed are thinking about leaving their profession altogether.
And again, it isn't so
much about Covid it's more about the fact that they are given this insane workload.
With so
many patients that they are just simply unable to take care of simultaneously.
And there's a very clear reason why hospitals are doing it.
Hospitals that run under a for-profit model want to
ensure that they maximize what, maximize profits.
So there's no reason to believe that a for profit hospital would be managed or
run any differently than any other corporation.
Any other for profit company where you want to minimize your cost and
you wanna maximize your profits.
And the individuals who usually bear the brunt of that system.
The individuals who usually deal with the abuse associated with that system
are the workers.
And in this case we're talking about the nurses.
And so this problem was already there, and
it was later compounded by Covid, let's watch.
>> The system was already broken.
Covid has just made it way worse.
>> In 1, 12-hour shift, we had six patients die under the age of 50,
and as quickly as they got those beds cleaned, there was more patients there.
A patient grabbed my hand and,
heat, he begged me to not let him die.
I'm sorry, and I told him that we would do everything we could within our power.
And I felt like I was ready to fall apart, but
I couldn't because the patient in the next room needed me.
>> To understand how the situation became so desperate.
You have to remember that hospitals are just like any other business,
staffing takes up about half the budget.
So a smaller workforce means bigger profits.
>> Hospitals use this type of what they call flex staffing so they flex for just
the bare minimum at that hour of the day. And then three hours goes by,
there's many more patients and then it's well you have this many
nurses, you'll have to just make do. >> The most annoying thing
that was ever said to me and my career by an administrator was we know you guys need
nurses, but it's not in the budget. >> So I think this is an easy story to
understand, especially when we see how businesses are run and how that usually
ends up hurting labor. Which is,
of course,
the biggest
cost associated
with any for
profit business.
Now, the New York times does provide some possible solutions and
while I agree that the solutions that they're bringing up could work.
I would argue that progressives leftists tend to have a far better solution.
So first, let me tell you what the New York Times is suggesting here, and
to be clear, this is an opinion piece written in the new york times.
They specifically give examples of legislation that has passed in states like
California, that essentially regulates the patient to nurse ratio or
the nurse to patient ratio.
To ensure that nurses aren't given so many patients to the point where they're
unable to provide adequate care to each patient that they're responsible for.
So California, luckily succeeded in passing legislation like that.
However, this is not something that's being done on a national level.
There are other states, including pennsylvania and Illinois that currently
have pending legislation and hopefully that legislation passes.
I think it's a good short-term solution and
I'll explain why it's a short-term solution in just a moment.
There are examples, though,
of other states who have attempted to pass similar legislation,
similar regulations to make sure that nurses aren't given too many patients.
But, it turns out that, like with any other for
profit business model, any other industry or private sector
where profits are always considered more important than people.
You get the corporate interests at play, they get involved,
they spend a lot of money and what do they do?
They defeat those efforts.
So here is some more information on that.
>> But a similar law in Massachusetts failed to pass in 2018,
thanks in part to a $25 million dollar campaign by the hospital lobby.
>> It puts government in charge of deciding how nurses care for patients with
the same rigid staffing ratios at every hospital in our state. A one size fits all
attempt to override the professional
judgment of nurses. >> The problem with these ads,
they're misleading. Just look at California where a bill like
this did pass the result, more nurses hired more nurses
staying in their jobs and better patient outcomes.
>> So yes, there could be attempts to pass legislation either on a federal level or
or on a state by state basis.
To ensure that, there's a way to mitigate the very clear profit
motives that are motivating these for-profit hospitals to be
incredibly understaffed, like people die as a result of that.
So in the very least state legislatures, the federal government, there should be an
effort by the very individuals who were elected to represent our best interests to
do something about this. To not only protect us as human beings who deserve
adequate care, but also to protect our nurses.
I mean, there was a lot of talk,
especially at the beginning of
the pandemic about how, my God,
these frontline workers, these nurses,
they're heroes. Why don't we all clap for
them as they're walking to work. But then pretend as if everything else is
all hunky dory. No, we need to make sure that these
healthcare workers, the individuals who are in fact dealing with the brunt of
the pandemic are treated fairly. That they're in better working conditions
and that they're compensated adequately. And
yes, you can do that through legislation. You could do it through regulations.
But what tends to happen with regulations,
especially in the United States.
You have private interests that do the lobbying that engage in the legalized
bribes and little by little even after all, the hard work is done. Even after
all, that policy is debated,
and we finally get legislation passed. They'll chip away at it,
little by little by little with their lobbying with their legalized bribes.
So I would argue that we should just
cut to the root of the problem here, which is a privatized healthcare model that
does not serve the american people well. It doesn't serve our healthcare
professionals well, it doesn't serve us well.
And if we continue moving forward with
a for profit model, I have no doubt in my mind that those with
a vested interest to profit off of our health care system will
claw their way back to square one. Where nurses are dealing with an insane
number of patients, which of course they can't provide adequate care too.
That's really the heart of the issue here.
Again, Covid certainly compounded it.
Covid, for all of the pain and
suffering that it's brought forth, has in my opinion been an eye opener for
many Americans. I think many people are clear,
it's abundantly clear that we have a broken system,
especially when it comes to health care. We were not prepared for
a pandemic even though we had unlimited resources and
could have absolutely been prepared. Having a for
profit privatized healthcare model put us in a terrible position to respond
adequately to the coronavirus pandemic. And yes, if you go to other countries that
let's say, have a single payer healthcare system, they ran into issues as well.
Especially when you would see Covid
surges due to new variants, but
they're not having problems when it comes
to ensuring that people are tested. They're not
having the problems that we've experienced from day one with this pandemic.
We see that the system is broken, we see that it doesn't work and
it's time to actually do something about it.
Making changes here and there with regulation is not good enough.
It might be a good short-term solution, but like I said, regulations can easily be
reversed with adequate lobbying by corporate interests. And I have no doubt
that that's what would happen here,
if we do succeed in passing legislation.
So I wanted to make sure to give the nurses a voice here because everyone
loves to speak for them.
And I was really happy to see that the New York Times sat down and
put that video together and heard their side of the story.
So the next time you hear some right wingers say that nurses are quitting
because of vaccine mandates.
Or some other nonsense talking point to fit whatever narrative they have, don't
listen to them, don't listen to anyone. Just listen to the nurses,
listen to what they're telling you, because they're just asking for help and
they absolutely deserve it. Considering the fact that
they've dedicated their entire lives and
careers to helping us.