What is the job that you enjoyed the most in your life?

Technology has been a boon to medicine, but has destroyed what a nurse is all about. Most nurses cannot catheterize a female patient. What? They don't know their anatomy. Most do not know how to use a sphygmometer with a stethoscope and what to listen for at the brachial artery, taking a proper blood pressure. As for true bedside nursing, forget it. Oh, their heads are crammed with all sorts of information, but they just push a button on their computers to verify that they are right. On the other hand, we did not have that luxury. We either knew it or not, and no checking at the bedside.

Enough of my ranting, but to add to what I have already stated. You can get advanced degrees like I did, but it doesn't make you a better nurse. All it gets you is a title and more money.
 
Don Alaska said:
I was really unhappy when they took so much of the clinical training away from nurses, made their job more complicated, and shortened the training. Many of today's nurses are clueless, but they usually don't know that. I have met many really good nurses over the years though, but hey are the exception, not the rule.
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Don you can add doctors and dentist to that list of nurses.
Although we also have to understand what they go through now like most people on earth.
I was at a dr. office a few years ago. When we were checking out I complained about the extra $15.00 since our insurance was already several hundred a month.
He came up to the counter and acted like he was about to cry!
Explaining to me how he could barely pay for his nurse and booking staff.
I then realized they too are dealing with this new age BS.
I thought doctors had a wonderful well-deserved lifestyle { like they use to have ].
 
Marie, doctors, dentists and nurses have to pay enormous amounts of money for malpractice insurance. 2 doctor friends of mine sold their practices and now are making a fortune on Wall Street.

If nurses work in a hospital, they are covered only so much in malpractice, so they must purchase a lot more on their own to be on the safe side.

In this litigious society, one never knows who is going to take a notion that they've been treated incorrectly. Lawyers cost money.
 
Lois E. Winters said:
Marie, doctors, dentists and nurses have to pay enormous amounts of money for malpractice insurance. 2 doctor friends of mine sold their practices and now are making a fortune on Wall Street.

If nurses work in a hospital, they are covered only so much in malpractice, so they must purchase a lot more on their own to be on the safe side.

In this litigious society, one never knows who is going to take a notion that they've been treated incorrectly. Lawyers cost money.
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Lois that doctor opened my eyes to the problems they have now.
I can remember when young how many wanted to be a doctor or lawyer when they grew up, not so much now.
 
I was brought up in a construction family and even though I still love working with wood, my career in Food and Beverage was quite rewarding.
Working in food and beverage financed my way through college, taught me good business stratagems whilst later on, introduced me to the ministry I fell in love with; working with the homeless.

The years working in the Rescue Mission ministry was by far the most joy filled time in my life. It was indeed very taxing at times but every night when I was finally able to put my head on the pillow, I knew that I had accomplished something good that day.
There were times when I worked in the commercial kitchens or worked as an F&B consultant whilst concurrently working with one mission or another but when I went into full time ministry, there were no longer any doubts as to what my calling and purpose in life was.
 
Lois E. Winters said:
Technology has been a boon to medicine, but has destroyed what a nurse is all about. Most nurses cannot catheterize a female patient. What? They don't know their anatomy. Most do not know how to use a sphygmometer with a stethoscope and what to listen for at the brachial artery, taking a proper blood pressure. As for true bedside nursing, forget it. Oh, their heads are crammed with all sorts of information, but they just push a button on their computers to verify that they are right. On the other hand, we did not have that luxury. We either knew it or not, and no checking at the bedside.

Enough of my ranting, but to add to what I have already stated. You can get advanced degrees like I did, but it doesn't make you a better nurse. All it gets you is a title and more money.
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Lois E. Winters said:
Marie, doctors, dentists and nurses have to pay enormous amounts of money for malpractice insurance. 2 doctor friends of mine sold their practices and now are making a fortune on Wall Street.

If nurses work in a hospital, they are covered only so much in malpractice, so they must purchase a lot more on their own to be on the safe side.

In this litigious society, one never knows who is going to take a notion that they've been treated incorrectly. Lawyers cost money.
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Dentists get --and pay for--a lot of stuff they never need and if they do need the info they have forgotten it. Doctor training, on the other hand, is similar in length to what it has been for a century or more. MDs, and to some extent DOs, deal with much more complexity and technology then they did 50 years ago, but the training is similar in length. Nurses have actually shortened the time they are in training. That is what Lois and I were talking about. Pharmacy has lengthened training (5 instead of 4 years), Radiology now requires 4 years I think, Respiratory Therapy (which was done by nurses until around 1970 I think) has/had two levels, but I don't know if that is still true. Laboratory training has had two levels for a long time (requirements went from 18 months and 3 years to 2 years and 4-5+), but doctors still have a Bachelor's plus 4 years of Medical School, internship, and residency. The same requirements they had 50 years ago. Doctors thus have to rely on computers and drugs instead of training to make their decisions. I forgot PT, which has gone from a Master's (and the most difficult training to get into, to a Doctorate with much lower standards of entry.

AI has already taken over a lot of Radiology except for Diagnostic Radiology, and it may soon take over Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. It will soon be the doctor you talk with. I have already seen one set of ads for a AI doctor that you talk to over the phone.
 
Don Alaska said:
Dentists get --and pay for--a lot of stuff they never need and if they do need the info they have forgotten it. Doctor training, on the other hand, is similar in length to what it has been for a century or more. MDs, and to some extent DOs, deal with much more complexity and technology then they did 50 years ago, but the training is similar in length. Nurses have actually shortened the time they are in training. That is what Lois and I were talking about. Pharmacy has lengthened training (5 instead of 4 years), Radiology now requires 4 years I think, Respiratory Therapy (which was done by nurses until around 1970 I think) has/had two levels, but I don't know if that is still true. Laboratory training has had two levels for a long time (requirements went from 18 months and 3 years to 2 years and 4-5+), but doctors still have a Bachelor's plus 4 years of Medical School, internship, and residency. The same requirements they had 50 years ago. Doctors thus have to rely on computers and drugs instead of training to make their decisions. I forgot PT, which has gone from a Master's (and the most difficult training to get into, to a Doctorate with much lower standards of entry.

AI has already taken over a lot of Radiology except for Diagnostic Radiology, and it may soon take over Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. It will soon be the doctor you talk with. I have already seen one set of ads for a AI doctor that you talk to over the phone.
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Each of these professions you mention, Don, require mandatory updating a couple of times each year, or your license will not be renewed.
 
Don Alaska said:
That is true, but the updates don't cover the innovations, especially with drugs.
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They do cover some, but, drugs really have to have Pharmaceutical companies educate us. There are so many new ones for so many diseases and conditions, it is unbelievable. A pharmaceutical research client of my son's, which was based in Shanghai, opened what was intended to be a small satellite facility not far from where I live. They were backed by an American Pharmaceutical company. They were researching and making a drug to stop pancreatic cancer in its tracks early on. Well, this company expanded exponentially as time passed, for they hired the best doctors and chemists to be found.

The director of this company was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and my son had a monthly Zoom conference with him from Shanghai to discuss what he required for his expanding company. My son has his own computer servicing company. He is an IT expert, and also a computer engineer. Well, the upshot of it all was, they finally were able to come up with a winning drug to stop this cancer.

They lost the contract for the go ahead to manufacture and distribute it in America. Why? Because they only tested the drug in China and not globally. So, an American company got the go ahead with a more questionable drug and this outfit folded and went home.

It begs the question, how many drugs are tested fully and globally? Our FDA answers to no one at all, which galls me. Also, why aren't our doctors permitted to try each drug, and make the decision of which is best? We don't even know just who runs or makes up the FDA.

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Lois E. Winters said:
They do cover some, but, drugs really have to have Pharmaceutical companies educate us. There are so many new ones for so many diseases and conditions, it is unbelievable. A pharmaceutical research client of my son's, which was based in Shanghai, opened what was intended to be a small satellite facility not far from where I live. They were backed by an American Pharmaceutical company. They were researching and making a drug to stop pancreatic cancer in its tracks early on. Well, this company expanded exponentially as time passed, for they hired the best doctors and chemists to be found.

The director of this company was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and my son had a monthly Zoom conference with him from Shanghai to discuss what he required for his expanding company. My son has his own computer servicing company. He is an IT expert, and also a computer engineer. Well, the upshot of it all was, they finally were able to come up with a winning drug to stop this cancer.

They lost the contract for the go ahead to manufacture and distribute it in America. Why? Because they only tested the drug in China and not globally. So, an American company got the go ahead with a more questionable drug and this outfit folded and went home.

It begs the question, how many drugs are tested fully and globally? Our FDA answers to no one at all, which galls me. Also, why aren't our doctors permitted to try each drug, and make the decision of which is best? We don't even know just who runs or makes up the FDA.

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The FDA has been a pawn of Big Pharma for some time, but I think it went full bore in the 1990s. Now the companies can get whatever thy want approved just by paying money for "Expedited Approval" or whatever they now call it. For a while, the best medical and drug research was being done in China, but I think Covid pretty much ended that. I don't follow it much any more though. As I once said, I long for the days when the government funded pure medical research. I have told the story of the father of a friend who had a small farm near Gettysburg, PA and he was stocking a pond on his property. He would leave for his job, and come back a few weeks later to find all the fish in his pond had been seined out of his little lake. Someone was poaching. He then put up a large sign which read, "Experimental Fish Project for Dr. _____ _____, Director of Cancer Research, National Institutes of Health". He was the director at the time, and his experiment was to see if he could grow fish.

He never had anyone poach his fish after the sign went up, and he successfully grew fish in his pond for him and his grandkids to eat when they were there.
 
This threat made me think of how many jobs I had. So I started writing down companies I've worked for came up with 15 companies and I also had 2 businesses.

Of the 15 companies I'd have to say my favorite job was working at A&S Dept store. I was manager of small appliances and carry - in TV repair. It was located in the basement right opposite customer service, in a alcove. I had a small glass counter with a register on top, behind the counter to the left was a doorway to a backroom, where I had workbench, and about 10,000 parts. Across from my counter to the left of the doorway to customer service was a floor style tube tester for customer use. My counter was to the right Alcove entrance, straight ahead was a locked stock room that stored customer TV's and small appliances, waiting to be picked up or for repair.

I did all the small appliances and vacuum repairs and some of the TV repair. I also sold parts, and headphones, cables, cartridges, and 8 track tapes. I had to be careful what I sold, we were a concession not owned by A&S, they didn't want us competing with them.My boss had concessions in every store.

There was a TV repair tech that floated between the stores, A&S had 4 stores on Long Island. He would visit my store twice a week. I was the busiest of all the stores.

We were purposely located opposite customer service, so that if a customer returned a coffee pot, a blender, toaster, etc. I was Right there to check out there complaint. If it was legit I was an authorized service for 26 appliance and TV companies.

I did a lot of Farberware coffee pot repairs, and sold a ton of the clear plastic knob on the cover.
Shetland vacuum was a cheaply made machine that filled my storage room.

On my workbench, in the backroom I had a small TV, which I watch while doing repairs. I was pretty quick diagnosing and fixing the small appliances, so I never fell behind. Most repairs I got done in a day, unless I had to order a part. If the counter wasn't busy and there wasn't any appliances or restocking to do, I watched TV. I especially like the cooking shows, my favorite was David Wade, I didn't care for the Galluping Gormet.
 
My very first 'real' job was working in a large Sears store the summer after graduating high school. I worked in the shoe department and had a lot of fun with 2 guys who also worked there; we were all teens and did a lot of joking and goofing around, making fun of customers when we went "behind the curtain" to get boxes of shoes.

Sears took their sales clerks very seriously; we were expected to dress appropriately and treat customers with respect. I had to attend classes to learn how to operate the cash register, deal with credit transactions, and use the "Brannock Device" to measure feet. Things were certainly different back then as far as stores' staff's expectation of their clerks, who are the face of the business.

This is a story I have never told anyone. There was a young man who worked in the appliance department who came over to the shoe department one day. He tried on several pairs of shoes and picked 2 pairs. I was ringing up the sale and giving him his employee discount when he told me to "put both pairs in the bag and only ring up one pair." I was so naive and horrified that anyone could do such a thing. I refused so he only bought one pair of the shoes.

I wasted no time in reporting him to my boss. I wrestled with my conscience over that for years since the guy got fired.
 
Lois E. Winters said:
Each of these professions you mention, Don, require mandatory updating a couple of times each year, or your license will not be renewed.
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Lois this may be true, but it doesn't consider the changes of todays medical colleges. Now with DEI and other campus courses the training is not what it used to be.
When we moved here 28 years ago, we went to university for all our medical services. Some of the students weren't physician material.
One Asian female student was a real piece of work.
 
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