Hospital in the Netherlands
Please look at my facebook page. I took a series of photos yesterday in the large, 1000 bed hospital in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Many Americans think that national health care systems in Europe deliver substandard care in a terrible environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, these pictures document what can happen when money in the healthcare system is devoted to care not profit.
Comments
I am not surprised. Physicians have been losing income for years. They still make a lot of money. I resent it. I realize I have only a four year degree, and it’s a nursing degreee. But when I got out of school, I had to choose between purchasing reliable transportation and being able to pay rent on a one bedroom apartment. I couldn’t do both. Now, I’m in a better situation. Of course, this year, thanks to all the Medicare cuts, the experienced night shift nurses took a pay cut and my standard of living is once again eroding. They cut our shift differentials and they cut out the differentials for holding special certifications. Oh, we’re doing a lot more work. We absorbed additional responsibiliites. We’re just making a lot less. This year, I will make $10,000 less than I did in 2011. I am scared that the ACA is going to render direct care nurses worthless. I am scared they’re going to tell me my new salary is going to be even less in 2014. I think a lot of what hospitals are doing is kneejerk reaction to ACA; and the hospitals will take away the income we’ve worked so hard to legitmize. Never mind “will”! They’re already doing it! In light of all this, I am angry that physicians who make so much money are just planning on nixing care to insured patients in what I see as a childish tantrum. As a nurse, I am expected to lay down my very salary, my standard of living, maybe even my home and retirement for the good of a public and a system that often exhibits contempt for my work. But doctors are just going to stop taking insurance reimbursements as payment because they don’t like the numbers? Honestly, I don’t have any confidence in either of our Presidential candidates. I don’t think either one of them know what they’re doing in the realm of health care. I get sick to my stomach at the thought of the first Tuesday in November. No matter who goes in, nurses are in for a bad four years. Maybe some will disagree on this – but not the hospital nurses in my state. I think we’re all scared down here.