nurses starting to protest protesters

[ENTHUSIAST]

There are some amazing nurses and there are the turd birds like in all professions. I respect the job they do but the US economy is more important than their job safety. If their hospital is not providing PPE that is a huge issue and should be taken up with the hospital or they have the right to seek employment elsewhere.

But counter protesting Americans trying to save our Country’s economy and doing stupid choreographed dance moves on Tik Tok or Twitter during the lockdown is only going to get people forced out of work more pissed off.

[diveRN]

Many hospitals, even those that are part of a larger solvent chain, were struggling before the pandemic started. Now, they're facing complete financial ruin and and are furloughing staff at an alarming rate. These nurses who are protesting are going to be the very same ones crying, "oh woe is me" when they lose their job due to the shutdown.

Nurses working during this mess are NOT heros any more than LEOs or firefighters are. The RNs that are latching onto this "hero" notion are self-aggrandizing, brainwashed simpletons who are letting others stroke their ego. They're regular people doing what is ordinarily a tough job during an extraordinarily difficult time.

[LBDamned]

Many hospitals, even those that are part of a larger solvent chain, were struggling before the pandemic started. Now, they're facing complete financial ruin and and are furloughing staff at an alarming rate. These nurses who are protesting are going to be the very same ones crying, "oh woe is me" when they lose their job due to the shutdown.

Nurses working during this mess are NOT heros any more than LEOs or firefighters are. The RNs that are latching onto this "hero" notion are self-aggrandizing, brainwashed simpletons who are letting others stroke their ego. They're regular people doing what is ordinarily a tough job during an extraordinarily difficult time.

This is where phase three of the agenda sets in... socialized medicine.

We will be bombarded with the "economy problems", the "unemployment issues" and the "healthcare crisis" - beginning in june and lasting till election day.

I stated this many weeks ago... the whole thing is calculated and very apparent.

[ibanezfoo]

Yes, but this is why they took that job, "to help people". To listen to the nurses' association, they care far more than us physicians. Guess how many physicians are still "on the front lines" seeing patients?

If you can't step it up during a perceived emergency, perhaps you should have taken a regular desk job?

I agree. The same can be said for any military or first responder and people see fit to thank them profusely. My Marine friends tell me they always hate it when people thank them for their service. It puts them on the spot and makes them feel uncomfortable. They tell me they do it for personal reasons, risk and all, and thats their job. Now don't take this as me being ungrateful or anything, I certainly am... just relaying what I'm told.

[duenor]

They can stay home and go bankrupt if they like, half of America is being forced to do that on the 0.008% chance they might die from something.

I agree that the sign pictured is stupid - she could quit and stay home if she wanted to. However, the overall protest message is more than valid. As of yesterday, all of the nurses and doctors that I personally know across the country still do not have adequate supplies to deal with this kind of a crisis.

• Surgical masks are not adequate for dealing with aerosolizing patients, which is anyone who is coughing. Yet nurses are still being told to conserve even surgical masks, and N95 are BYO or they are issued one and told to reuse it indefinitely.
• Face shields need to be the permanent type or there needs to be a large supply of disposable shields. None of the nurses I know have been issued permanent shields and all of them are expected to reuse their disposable ones using bleach.
• Attending nurses must be given the same protections as doctors. In every hospital I have asked about, doctors are wear N95, surgical, shield. The nurses standing right behind them as they do intubation, which is highly aerosolizing, have only surgical masks on (and as mentioned earlier are conserving those, too). In the old world, this was fine. Not so with COVID19.

In essence, if we are to use the war analogy, our nurses are our soldiers. They do most of the fighting (spending far more time in close contact with patients than doctors), and will bear the brunt of the dying, too. Right now we have a system where our soldiers are being sent out to the front wearing flak jackets instead of actual armor. We would all be up in arms about this if this was happening to our soldiers, and we should be equally up in arms about this as it is happening to our nurses.

It is April 25th. A nobody like me knew about this by the first week of January, and it was in the news every single day since at least Jan 11. Nearly four months have gone by, and we still are not able to equip the nation's medical forces adequately. There still does not appear to be a federally coordinated program to ensure this happens, and as of today states are still bidding against each other to buy up equipment marked up well over 500-1000%. I used to buy boxes of n95 $10 for 20 at SOS Supply in Van Nuys. Now hospitals and unions act like they've gotten a solid deal if they are buying at $5-7 each.

[The War Wagon]

"Essential worker" does sound NICER than, "sacrificial redshirt."