Shouldn’t the question be WHY is gas so costly?

This topic really irritates me. Why? Because it falls along the same reason anything else either costs too much or we aren’t treated well! It’s very simple…

because we allow it!

I compare the rise in gas prices to many other areas we experience on a daily basis. We just buck up and do it, take it, allow it to happen. It’s along the same lines that I experience the continual disrespect of nurses that work very hard every day and get little back in return. Or good people trying to do the right thing, but after a while just succumbed to the daily grind and give up. Some people make life too hard. There isn’t a lot of compassion for our fellow man. Our own citizens right here under our noses. I hope to God, no one ever suffers a series of losses like I have, because it’s a battle I have to fight daily too keep on a happy face. For my own sanity, for my job, for my financial health. Despite my efforts the crap just continues to hammer away. I’m finding out that if people haven’t experienced a loss or financial hardship – they don’t get it. No matter how much they say they understand.

It’s a good thing nurses love what we do. Or at least the majority of use love what we do. Some have been dealing with this disrespect so long they have become bitter and are just waiting for retirement. We’ve allowed our wages to go up minimally for as long as we have been working. Recent wage increases don’t come close to paying for the increase in gas let alone the cost of inflation. I have friends that work outside of health care and have better health care benefits than I do. What a shame! Nurses work hard to provide excellent patient care in the midst of difficult circumstances. We are treated like kindergartners when it comes to life altering situations. Three strikes and you’re on probation. Instead of being proactive and helping support the very profession that is dwindling away a breakneck speed. Life sometimes deals you a crappy hand, a prolonged illness, a family crisis or better yet a life altering loss. And we get scolded as if we are in 1st grade if we have to miss a few days here and there in order to get back on our feet.

I’m so fed up with this type of treatment, so much so that I’ve been seriously considering leaving the profession. The negatives are far outweighing the positives. After suffering the loss that I have had to endure – I am just so tired of living a life of “give us more more more and we’ll give you less less less. To think I was considering reentering school for my master’s degree in nursing. For what? A mid level nursing job that pays not more than I make now and yet expects you to eat, drink and breathe your job. Better yet, you still don’t have any more ability to make any real decisions that can bring about change. Just ask a nurse, she’ll tell you. Seen it tried, never seen it work.

Oh my – I’m beginning to sound cynical! Yet I get up everyday and when I am with my patients – that’s all that matters. They are why I still get up everyday and go to work. It’s helping them through a bad situation and in some way being a blessing to them. I work with a great group of nurses. Wonderfully caring, very compassionate, and like me, share in a love to help others. I have always wondered where does that compassion go when a nurse stops bedside patient care and assumes the role of manager, or director. I’ve only met a few that have kept that have been able to remember why they became nurses. But for the most part it appears to have been lost in the mass amount of red-tape and large number of endless meetings that our leaders “have to” attend.

I say to the nursing leaders, health care administration – come back to the bedside and walk in my shoes (literally) – see what I and my fellow nurses face daily – involve more staff in some of these “have to” meetings – come lend a hand when we are overwhelmed. Maybe, just maybe we might start to see change.

And oh, about the gas prices – it’s about supply and demand – you know, the stuff you learned in high school business class. It’s not rocket science – just use less gas.

until next time,