[HN Gopher] Worn-out nurses hit the road for better pay, stressi...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Worn-out nurses hit the road for better pay, stressing hospital
       budgets, morale
        
       Author : mooreds
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2021-10-20 12:12 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (text.npr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (text.npr.org)
        
       | NoblePublius wrote:
       | Sounds like a great time to fire healthcare workers who won't get
       | vaccinated.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | There's likely a net positive to forcing out workers who put
         | themselves, their coworkers, and their patients at risk based
         | on misinformation, yes.
        
       | Miner49er wrote:
       | Isn't the solution simple? Pay nurses like 80%-100% of what
       | traveling nurses make, instead of 50% or less.
        
         | Spooky23 wrote:
         | That's not how business works in 2021. You hire traveling
         | nurses to suppress wages.
         | 
         | The hospital my wife worked in merged into a big network and
         | gave every RN a 25% haircut, and laid off a few key departments
         | (ER most notably), replacing them with travel nurses and a
         | contracted medical practice. A few exceptions were made in high
         | margin lines if business.
         | 
         | Net result? Care sucks, finances are green. They purged the
         | mid-career people and now have a young and dumb workforce.
         | There was a particular emphasis on hiring military wives as
         | they are transient. The key thing is to stave off unions.
         | 
         | Like any other consulting thing, they eventually purge the
         | hired guns. The traveling nurse boom is a COVID thing. As COVID
         | wanes, these folks will be back in the meatgrinder.
        
           | SkyPuncher wrote:
           | Traveling nurses have been a thing long before COVID.
        
         | bluedino wrote:
         | Healthcare isn't expensive enough?
        
           | brezelgoring wrote:
           | Administrative overhead and corporate bonuses account for
           | that far more than any nurse could ever hope to, also the
           | whole insurance system too.
        
           | pc86 wrote:
           | Paying a nurse $125k instead of $80k is not going to
           | appreciably increase the cost of healthcare for any
           | individual patient when the radiologist makes $500k, the
           | surgeon makes $750k, the charge nurse makes $200k, and you
           | get billed $35 for a Tylenol.
        
           | ThaJay wrote:
           | It's not expensive because of nurse wages. It's expensive
           | because of top manager wages, dividents and bonusses.
        
         | throwaway0a5e wrote:
         | You're assuming that hospitals wouldn't rather pay double to
         | have nurses who see themselves as transient cogs in the machine
         | and give few shits about anything beyond hitting the KPIs they
         | need to keep getting paid.
        
           | MattGaiser wrote:
           | Aren't all workers very quickly becoming transient cogs in
           | the machine?
           | 
           | I don't know a single friend at this point on a fully staffed
           | team in any field anywhere. Whether it be FAANG, startups, or
           | the government, data analytics in retail or lawyers at law
           | firms, there is massive churn everywhere.
        
             | throwaway0a5e wrote:
             | It's not a binary.
             | 
             | Fully staffed or not people who see themselves as long term
             | employees with skin in the game or as providing a service
             | to their community will be resistant to implementing
             | policies that screw the customer and will help customers
             | ask for the things they need to ask for to not get screwed.
             | Employees who see themselves as transient more readily
             | implement whatever management asks without thinking.
        
               | h2odragon wrote:
               | Very well put
        
               | MattGaiser wrote:
               | That is interesting take.
               | 
               | I would have thought that transients would be less likely
               | to do that as they could more easily take other roles,
               | while embedded people would have more to lose by opposing
               | management. Why companies hire consultants for unpopular
               | changes, as they will be leaving anyway and thus have
               | less to lose.
               | 
               | I am not sure which one is the case.
        
           | cogman10 wrote:
           | Yeah, but that's really where this article should be
           | focusing.
           | 
           | Hospitals are basically at the "We tried nothing and we are
           | out of ideas!"
           | 
           | The solution to a lot of nurse burnout is really pretty
           | simple, increase their wages, hire more than the minimum of
           | travel nurses so they aren't all working overtime.
        
             | coliveira wrote:
             | The capitalist oligarchy will prefer to destroy an industry
             | rather than increase salaries. This is essentially what
             | they did in the US (and around the world) when moving
             | industry to low wage countries.
        
               | senortumnus wrote:
               | I do think there is truth in hospital systems slowly
               | eroding the profession of nurse and physician to further
               | cement their control over the future of health care. See
               | traveler nurses and NP/PAs in hospital systems.
        
             | adolph wrote:
             | Wages are orthogonal to burnout
             | 
             | Burnout is a psychological factor
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Both factors are crucial when retaining people.
        
               | SamBam wrote:
               | I think you are mostly right about this, but decent pay
               | goes a long way to signaling respect, which is definitely
               | a factor in burnout.
        
               | adolph wrote:
               | Likely not curative after the fact
        
               | cogman10 wrote:
               | Imagine being a programmer earning 60k. Now imagine that
               | your company has a time crunch, During that time crunch
               | they are expecting you to work 80+ hours a week.
               | 
               | Now imagine that because of said crunch they say "Hmm, we
               | need some contractors to speed this up." So they hire
               | just enough to reduce your hours from 80 to 75.
               | 
               | Now imagine how you'd feel learning all those contractors
               | are earning $120k and with your skill set, you could to
               | if you left your employer (because there's a high demand
               | for devs everywhere). Not only that, but you have a lot
               | more flexibility in your hours and no longer need to do
               | 80+ hour weeks.
               | 
               | What would you do?
               | 
               | Wage is a huge factor here and the nurses leaving aren't
               | necessarily leaving nursing but instead turning into
               | travel nurses. This creates the vicious cycle the
               | hospitals are currently experiencing.
               | 
               | Hospitals have 2 levers to pull to fix this problem.
               | 
               | 1. Increase wages so less nurses feel inclined to leave
               | for more money. 2. Increase the number of travel nurses
               | so current nurses aren't pressured into insane and
               | demanding work hours.
               | 
               | The lever they are pulling instead, is "hire just enough
               | travel nurses for minimal compliance (maybe) and buy
               | little caesars pizza... maybe. Then complain to media
               | outlets about how lazy nurses are."
               | 
               | The reason hospitals aren't fixing this problem is
               | simple. Once they raise their nurses salaries, they will
               | have a HARD time lowering them again.
        
               | adolph wrote:
               | This reads kind of like the first time said programmer
               | saw the rates their company pays for contractors.
               | 
               | At the end of the day burnout still isn't solved by pay.
        
         | mooreds wrote:
         | I don't run a hospital, but know folks who have worked in one.
         | My guess is that paying someone 2x (or many someones) for a
         | short period of time is easier on the long term budget than
         | raising the wages of permanent employees.
         | 
         | Feels similar to how every company seems to want senior
         | developer talent, but few will pay for training new senior
         | talent.
        
           | ootsootsoots wrote:
           | Yeah was reading about this the other day locally.
           | 
           | The inflated cost of traveling nurses is used in negotiating
           | new contracts.
           | 
           | Frankly if American workers want better, they need to realize
           | supply and demand applies to labor.
           | 
           | There's no reason a surgeon should have a Ferrari while the
           | nursing staff that supports them makes $70k year.
           | 
           | It's highly skilled labor but also, imo, artificially
           | constrained by our educational funding choices.
           | 
           | All of which is politically babysat to be just so according
           | to well paid economists who are trotted out to tell us
           | inequality is normal because that's how it's always been.
           | 
           | Americans made kings and robber barons again and just changed
           | the words. Meanwhile petty crime is high treason.
           | 
           | Human society as we know it was set on this path by forever
           | lifers. The end game is the end times. They don't care if
           | anyone survives, no one will be around to complain.
           | 
           | Drop the worker euphemisms and call everyone people. This
           | arbitrary taxonomy to satisfy political sorting is inhuman.
        
           | mfer wrote:
           | Hitting on the budget is a good point.
           | 
           | Hospitals are often run inefficiently [1]. This leads to a
           | lot of overhead costs. Many procedures in hospitals loose
           | money for hospitals while others make money. Taking care of
           | COVID patients typically looses a hospital money. So, where
           | does the money come from to pay nurses more when much of
           | their work is on patients they loose money on?
           | 
           | [1] https://claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-
           | prescrip...
        
           | akudha wrote:
           | I have never been in management, so maybe I am missing
           | something here. Even from a purely economic perspective,
           | wouldn't it make sense to keep your existing employees happy
           | than having to deal with constant turnover, unhappy workers
           | etc? All I see is constant hiring (even in small teams) and
           | people constantly leaving, to the point that some teams
           | become completely new in just 3-4 years because of attrition.
           | 
           | In my previous job, a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng list of items were
           | pending, because they didn't have enough people to work on
           | them. The mobile app hadn't been updated in 3 years, not even
           | the bugs were fixed. And still the company was one of the
           | most boring places I've worked, with meeting after meeting
           | after meeting...
           | 
           | How hard can it be to have individual conversations with
           | employees once a quarter or something, pay them decent, and
           | at least try to help them do their jobs better? All of which
           | will result in more revenue for the company, no?
           | 
           | I had a chat with a recruiter who argued that remote workers
           | should be paid less. Shouldn't they be paid more (or at least
           | the same as in-office workers for the same work) because the
           | company is saving money on office space, electricity,
           | internet and even stupid coffee and toilet paper? If the
           | recruiter opens the conversation that remote workers are
           | worth less, then how do they expect the candidates to take
           | them seriously? This is just one example.
           | 
           | I just don't get it. Maybe I am not management material/
        
             | nathanaldensr wrote:
             | _How hard can it be to have individual conversations with
             | employees_
             | 
             | It can be very difficult when the management and executive
             | classes tend to self-select for sociopathic traits.
        
         | david38 wrote:
         | Just like that? All that money just burning a hole in the
         | hospital's pocket?
         | 
         | Tell me, at the hospital you manage, how's that policy working
         | out?
        
       | mfer wrote:
       | There are a few things I've learned from the nurses I know...
       | 
       | - Nurses, the primary caregivers in Hospitals, have been treated
       | pretty poorly for a long time. Some of it is pay, some of it is
       | expectations, some of it is just the way the people around them
       | treat them (e.g., the way surgeons often talk to them).
       | 
       | - Some management has gotten down right mean. I know one hospital
       | that has dictated that refusing to work a mandated shift (that's
       | where they keep you longer than your shift to keep working) will
       | cause you to be fired. They've gone through on that already.
       | 
       | - ICU nurses have seen the worst. In places that have had peak
       | COVID it's not unusual for 9/10 people with COVID in the ICU to
       | die. That takes a tole on people.
       | 
       | - Some hospitals are giving huge bonuses to new hires. And better
       | pay. There's nothing like being a senior nurse in an ICU who has
       | more responsibility and higher expectations while having the new
       | person next to them having just gotten a bonus and making more
       | money. You might as well quit and go work at a different nearby
       | hospital to get a bonus and raise.
       | 
       | I wonder what would happen if hospitals starting doing peakon
       | surveys of their people and started working to improve on things.
        
         | wayoutthere wrote:
         | > (e.g., the way surgeons often talk to them)
         | 
         | To be fair, surgeons talk to everyone that way. I haven't met a
         | surgeon who didn't talk down to other people. My theory is that
         | you have to have a huge fucking ego to cut someone open and
         | believe you're going to make them better.
        
           | the_d3f4ult wrote:
           | Bullshit. Very few doctors behave this way and it's generally
           | any better tolerated in a healthcare workplace than in any
           | other workplace. This is a media construct designed as a
           | scapegoat for the many failures of the american healthcare
           | system. The greatest trick corporate healthcare systems ever
           | played was convincing everyone that physicians are the
           | villains and not the mega-corp that's bleeding every penny
           | out of healthcare.
        
           | mfer wrote:
           | Nurses working 12 hour shifts spend more time around surgeons
           | than most other people do. It takes it's toll.
           | 
           | You can be very good at what you do and confident in it
           | without talking down to others, being arrogant, or treating
           | others poorly. It's a cultural and character thing.
        
           | senortumnus wrote:
           | Surgeon here, always try to treat nurses with respect and
           | work with them as a team member to accomplish the best care
           | for the patient. Maybe it's a midwest thing.
        
           | chucksta wrote:
           | Good theory, mine was there is such little tolerance for them
           | to be incorrect, so it's "what I said because I said it"
        
           | bsder wrote:
           | > I haven't met a surgeon who didn't talk down to other
           | people.
           | 
           | Then they are a shit surgeon.
           | 
           | You can tell really good surgeons. Their nursing staff are on
           | the ball and _completely_ unafraid to call out a doctor and
           | the surgeon has _no problem_ with this.
           | 
           | I went in for wrist surgery. The anesthesiologist was not the
           | surgeon's normal one. He said something slightly off and all
           | _4_ nurses immediately stopped him and made him correct
           | himself and repeat the corrected statement _3 times_.
           | 
           |  _THAT_ was a good surgeon.
        
           | SkyPuncher wrote:
           | Ego plays a part, but I think med school and residency play a
           | bigger part. Surgery residency is ultra competitive and
           | freaking grueling.
           | 
           | Basically putting 10+ years of your life into being a surgeon
           | ends up playing a big part in your core mindset and approach
           | to life. You don't really end up being a surgeon without
           | being fully committed to it.
        
         | lmilcin wrote:
         | I don't have any experience with US healthcare but I know this
         | depends a lot on the country.
         | 
         | Large part of this is that much of US healthcare is in the
         | business of earning money or optimizing costs, the care being
         | only side effect. As long as incentives are not right, there
         | exists no practical way to fix the system, only prop it up here
         | and there to eliminate worst offenses.
         | 
         | As to salaries, I just can't imagine how it is even legal for
         | nurses to do same job but being paid more because they just
         | joined. I can sort of understand that you can be paid more if
         | you do same job but have more experience. You get paid for
         | loyalty and for the added value of your knowledge/experience
         | that makes your work potentially higher quality. But being paid
         | less is shady af because it exploits the nurses which have high
         | incentive to stay at one place if only to keep the commute to
         | the hospital. If you have family you can't just move to
         | somewhere else every 2-3 years just to keep your salary
         | competitive.
         | 
         | As to verbal treatment, I understand that the problem is that
         | if you are a good surgeon, you will be hired no matter how mean
         | you are toward your coworkers.
         | 
         | In large companies I have worked for (mainly financial) this is
         | not tolerated (as much). You can be great senior developer or
         | tech lead, but if you are mean to junior developers you are
         | likely going to be reprimanded and then dismissed if you
         | continue.
        
           | mfer wrote:
           | > Large part of this is that much of US healthcare is in the
           | business of earning money or optimizing costs, the care being
           | only side effect.
           | 
           | ICUs are not optimized. Hospitals in general are not
           | optimized in the US. A lot of the cost issue is in
           | inefficiency. Many ICU patients cause a hospital to loose
           | money.
           | 
           | > As to salaries, I just can't imagine how it is even legal
           | for nurses to do same job but being paid more because they
           | just joined...
           | 
           | Salary is what ever a company decides to pay a person. There
           | are all kinds of ups and downs. If you're running financially
           | inefficiently, as most US hospitals are, then you need to
           | limit when you pay people more.
           | 
           | When US hospitals have seen a majority of their patients as
           | COVID patients the loss they were talking about lead to
           | bankruptcy speculations.
           | 
           | While the predictions weren't right (in terms of timing)
           | there is a lot of good context in
           | https://claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-
           | prescrip...
        
         | TheCapn wrote:
         | Canadian speaking, wife is ICU RN. Everything you've said is
         | spot on, but there's always more to add. Nurses get assaulted
         | pretty much daily. It's such a problem, management basically
         | said it's not worth reporting because nothing is going to be
         | done.
         | 
         | The largest issue is the chronically understaffed units. The
         | burnout that results from having double the normal patient load
         | makes everyone cranky and the team atmosphere breaks down. In
         | better managed units the nurses are all willing to pitch in,
         | help with workload or take over so you can have a break. In
         | units that are suffering, everyone starts looking out for #1
         | and that whole system breaks down. People start scheming and
         | creating cliques among themselves so if you're not with the
         | "in" crowd on a shift you can get royally screwed... the
         | animosity just grows.
         | 
         | My wife has had coworkers commit suicide. There's been
         | countless nurses straight up quitting, whether to retire or to
         | take up contract work south of the border (the stories of how
         | much they're making filter back through and more nurses start
         | going that direction). Personally, my wife was forced to go on
         | early mat leave because when she told management she will not
         | be able to be primary on COVID patients. Management said
         | goodbye... My assumption is the union would not allow nurses to
         | create such demands (even with proper doctors notes and
         | accommodation) but they would rather lose a nurse entirely than
         | deal with accommodations in an unprecedented time.
         | 
         | I've spoken with her multiple times and ultimately I think a
         | lot of their issues stem from being unable to shift their
         | hiring/onboarding practices. As an Engineer, I start as Junior.
         | I get jobs designated for Junior Engineers, and I work
         | alongside the Seniors to pick up skills and craft.
         | 
         | As an RN she's fighting with people 25 years her senior for a
         | position. She was out of school working casual shifts for 5
         | years before getting a temporary position, and longer after to
         | get the permanent job. But even then, she's competing with the
         | senior nurses for the same shifts. They _aren 't_ equal in
         | skill, but they're treated that way, and the seniors gobble up
         | everything they can until they run out and crash.
        
       | _pmf_ wrote:
       | Maybe going from being labelled as a hero to "get vaccinated or
       | you're a threat to public health" is not something that sits very
       | well with people.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | Well, sure.
         | 
         | A war hero becomes a bad guy if they keep shooting after the
         | enemy surrenders, too. Context matters.
        
         | wayoutthere wrote:
         | Vaccines as a job requirement are nothing new and I have no
         | pity for people who have been fired as a result. Cry me a
         | fucking river, you've had to have them for decades to send your
         | kid to public school.
         | 
         | Honestly if they don't believe in vaccines, I question their
         | competency as a nurse and do not want them touching me. I as a
         | patient should have the choice to manage my own risk level.
         | These nurses can go find another job where they're not exposing
         | already sick patients to a deadly virus, because IMO they're
         | not qualified to be nurses.
        
       | josh_today wrote:
       | Could this also be a result of forced vaccinations on healthcare
       | workers (who were on the front lines for us early in the
       | pandemic) who then move to states without mandates.
        
         | clarge1120 wrote:
         | This is a valid question that does appear politically
         | motivated. But, the downvoting does appear politically
         | motivated.
         | 
         | If we look at the from-state/to-state patterns, we may see
         | evidence, one way or the other, that vaccine mandates cause
         | healthcare workers to change jobs. We may see that the mandates
         | do not cause any significant change. Any significant change
         | (15% or more) in the number of healthcare workers can result in
         | a change in healthcare quality from one state to another. If
         | quality of healthcare changes significantly (positively or
         | negatively) in a state, due to vaccine mandates, I want to
         | know: especially if it is in my state.
        
           | rsj_hn wrote:
           | You are not gonna get this type of data until years later, if
           | ever. We don't have realtime regional data that is
           | comprehensive, we have local anecdotes and then national data
           | without regional breakdowns.
           | 
           | National data _with_ regional breakdowns always lags by quite
           | a bit, and unless there is institutional demand for such
           | data, it just wont be collected at all.
           | 
           | One possibility is to look at BLS employment data by regions,
           | but it's still really tricky to tease these types of effects
           | out of that.
        
         | kasey_junk wrote:
         | The example was a nurse who moved to California.
         | 
         | Pay, as the article states, seems to be a better explanation
         | than a political boogeyman.
        
           | LMYahooTFY wrote:
           | Nurses were on strike in Texas?
           | 
           | How is a mandate that some are against a 'boogeyman'? Is a
           | law requiring employers to provide health insurance a
           | 'boogeyman'?
           | 
           | These are simple things that obviously exist. And one nurse
           | moving doesn't indicate much of anything.
        
         | cabbageoverload wrote:
         | Do you have information that supports this theory or is it just
         | a guess?
        
           | captnObvious wrote:
           | Worked in hospitals for years. The day my flu vaccine expired
           | I had to go get another or I would be in violation of my
           | contract. Has been like that for decades.
        
             | lostmsu wrote:
             | Have you ever seen people quitting over that?
        
           | clarge1120 wrote:
           | Does every question have to be supported by verifiable
           | information, or is it just an offhand question?
        
         | KittenInABox wrote:
         | The number of people who leave because of vaccine mandates are
         | a few percentage points. It's been borne out again and again as
         | mandates are put in effect that the vast majority end up
         | complying and only a few percentage points end up leaving from
         | them. This is a much bigger phenomenon related to how hospital
         | administration cuts nursing to the bone and the lack of
         | organized labor pushing for safer standards of work and better
         | working conditions.
        
           | politician wrote:
           | Wait, there isn't union for nurses?!
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | There are nursing unions. Not every facility is unionized.
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | The mandate is Federal - any facility that takes Medicaid or
         | Medicare is subject to it. That's pretty much everything except
         | a few small private practices. Traveling nurses will almost
         | always be required to be vaccinated.
        
           | bluedino wrote:
           | They were among the first to be required
        
           | adolph wrote:
           | Apparently the mandate is in progress and doesn't yet exist:
           | 
           |  _A CMS spokesperson told Fierce Healthcare that the agency
           | is currently in the active rule-making process and cannot
           | comment on any specifics of the pending healthcare provider
           | regulations but did note that there will be a 60-day comment
           | period immediately following its publication in the Federal
           | Register._
           | 
           | https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/hospitals/conflicting-
           | feder...
        
         | MattGaiser wrote:
         | AFAIK, mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers aren't
         | new.
        
           | StanislavPetrov wrote:
           | One of the issues is that in the USA (as opposed to Europe
           | and other countries that prioritize science over politics)
           | there are no exemptions for people who have recovered from
           | covid and have natural immunity, which has shown to be more
           | effective than the vaccine.
        
           | fidesomnes wrote:
           | FWIW, experimental gene therapy's mandated by emergency use
           | authorization only are.
        
         | benjaminwootton wrote:
         | Amazing how even raising this as a question gets you downvoted.
         | 
         | Yes, I'm sure it's a factor, and needlessly so considering the
         | vaccine seems to have a negligible effect on transmission.
         | 
         | Prepared for my own downvotes after sharing some particularly
         | uncomfortable truths.
        
           | blacktriangle wrote:
           | I love how you both acknowledge that health care workers
           | quitting over forced vaccination is an issue while
           | immediately dismissing their actual experience of having
           | worked through both pre and post vaccine covid world and
           | first hand seeing the impact of mass vacination.
           | 
           | If enough health care workers are willing to walk away from
           | their jobs rather than take a vaccine, maybe you should take
           | their observations seriously?
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | > If enough health care workers are willing to walk away
             | from their jobs rather than take a vaccine, maybe you
             | should take their observations seriously?
             | 
             | If you value their opinions in that way, you should get the
             | vaccine.
             | 
             | https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-
             | sur...
             | 
             | "The American Medical Association (AMA) today released a
             | new survey (PDF) among practicing physicians that shows
             | more than 96 percent of surveyed U.S. physicians have been
             | fully vaccinated for COVID-19, with no significant
             | difference in vaccination rates across regions. Of the
             | physicians who are not yet vaccinated, an additional 45
             | percent do plan to get vaccinated."
        
           | ceejayoz wrote:
           | > Amazing how even raising this as a question gets you
           | downvoted.
           | 
           | That's because it's readily debunked. Nurses largely can't
           | evade the vaccine mandates by moving; virtually all
           | healthcare facilities are subject to the _Federal_ vaccine
           | mandate.
           | 
           | > Yes, I'm sure it's a factor, and needlessly so considering
           | the vaccine seems to have a negligible effect on
           | transmission.
           | 
           | That doesn't seem to be true.
           | 
           | https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/vaccinated-
           | people...
           | 
           | "Both vaccines reduced transmission, although they were more
           | effective against the alpha variant compared to the delta
           | variant. When infected with the delta variant, a given
           | contact was 65 percent less likely to test positive if the
           | person from whom the exposure occurred was fully vaccinated
           | with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. With AstraZeneca, a
           | given contact was 36 percent less likely to test positive if
           | the person from whom the exposure occurred was fully
           | vaccinated."
        
             | clarge1120 wrote:
             | That's not why the question is downvoted. One can ask a
             | question without the Achewallie crew dropping in with a
             | wall of words.
        
           | pc86 wrote:
           | The vaccine does reduce transmissibility. From the CDC:
           | "Infections with the Delta variant in vaccinated persons
           | potentially have reduced transmissibility than infections in
           | unvaccinated persons, although additional studies are
           | needed."[0] and Delta is more transmissible than "regular"
           | COVID for the vaccinated (and I think in general).
           | 
           | But the primary benefit of the vaccine is to reduce the
           | burden on the healthcare system. The vast majority (mid-to-
           | high-90%s) of hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. It
           | stands to reason that the more people running around without
           | being vaccinated, the more people will get hospitalized. At a
           | certain point, death is just a percentage of hospitalization,
           | especially as you have places without beds that have to just
           | turn people away. So fewer vaccines directly correlates to
           | more deaths.
           | 
           | Speaking personally now, I don't care if people don't want to
           | get vaccinated. I think it's idiotic, the vaccine is FDA
           | approved now, hundreds of millions of people have gotten it
           | and side effects are as rare or rarer than any other vaccine.
           | But if you work with the public, especially in public health,
           | schools, etc., there is a list of required vaccinations
           | multiple pages long. Adding one more to the list isn't an
           | encroachment on anyone's civil liberties, and you're free to
           | move elsewhere, but that's not what's happening here.
           | 
           | [0]
           | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-
           | br...
        
           | mehphp wrote:
           | I'm not downvoting you, just pointing out that transmission
           | isn't the only reason to be vaccinated in a hospital setting.
           | 
           | Hospital systems are already overwhelmed, so having
           | vaccinated staff reduces the amount of staff that have to
           | miss shifts because they are dealing with covid symptoms.
           | 
           | Vaccines reduce symptoms, death and hospitalizations from
           | covid complications. It's amazing to me that we have hospital
           | staff that would rather listen to the Joe Rogans of the world
           | than to the science they supposedly learned about in college.
        
           | clarge1120 wrote:
           | Not only will your comment be downvoted, it will be
           | relentlessly questioned for veracity, as if asking a question
           | required verifiable links from approved sources.
        
       | hikerclimber1 wrote:
       | That's why the government should have healthcare for all like
       | Europe and ever other advanced economy.
        
       | avs733 wrote:
       | "free market exists for employees as well as businesses,
       | businesses concerned"
       | 
       | I found myself recently listening to a podcast about the teacher
       | shortage. Something like 20% of first year teachers leave the
       | profession. It costs around $20k to replace a teacher. The
       | average teacher starting salary is $41k. If you could get
       | teachers to stay by (1) treating them with respect, (2)
       | administrators having their back, and (3) raising that to $46k,
       | more than 10% of pay, how many would stay for at least five
       | years? The first two cost nothing, and if they stay more than 4
       | years you have entirely recouped the cost of replacing them every
       | year.
        
       | JanisL wrote:
       | I find it a bit depressing that the "you need to change jobs to
       | get raises" dynamic is being seen in hospitals now as well.
        
         | tomrod wrote:
         | Feels like nursing is being pushed into the gig economy.
        
         | infecto wrote:
         | Take it with a grain of salt but I have seen a number of
         | conversations about how hospital groups are applying raises.
         | They take the bottom pay and they apply some dollar amount per
         | year worked/experience. Seems to be wiping out more experienced
         | employees raises.
         | 
         | https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6267377
        
         | pc86 wrote:
         | Changing jobs to get a bigger raise has been the standard in
         | every industry for a long time.
        
         | avs733 wrote:
         | it's not a dynamic it is propaganda designed to delegitimize
         | concerns about working conditions.
         | 
         | Labor is a form of capital when there is not enough labor to go
         | around - or when labor can be more easily relocated.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-10-20 23:01 UTC)