COVID simply brought to light what Nurses have been experiencing for decades. Your Heroes never felt like Heroes, instead they felt used and abused by Politics and the Pandemic. Worse, they feel their community and their Employers have turned on them one overwhelming Hospital surge to the next.
If you don’t believe me, visit a Local Hospital near you and just ask random Nurses. Their story will not differ much from the next Nurse in another City, State or Country.
Nursing Shortage will get worse every year because no one is fixing the real problem sincerely and honestly.
Underpaid, overworked, forced to risk their health and lives, Nurses are tired of Hospital CEO’s and Management lies, abuse, indifference and threats. So they leave.
Those who stay developed suppressed PTSD, Phobia, Anxiety and Depression. Suicide among Nurses and Doctors are not uncommon. Similar triggers includes COVID with its compounding burden and curses that leads to Professional Burn Out and Personal Breakdown.
Medical Professionals are the last to seek help, that is if they find the courage to reach out for help. Mostly, they keep swimming until they sink or reach victory.
The next Generation of Nurses are different. They are the Generation Z Nurses who are big on work that sees and listens to them. Their loyalty, dedication and trust are earned by those who gives them happiness, purpose, attention and big pay. They don’t care if a hospital is a “Magnet.” They do care if it’s repulsive or not in its treatment of Medical Staff.
Old School Employer attitude and practices will not work with Gen Z. Exactly why we have the Great Resignation problem now. They leave when unhappy and will not tolerate injustice and usual work discrimination the previous generations allowed to go on.
Can the Generation Z New Nurses handle the overall Stress, Demands, Sickness and Deaths Older, Trained and Experienced Nurses have to endure in the New World of COVID? Will they stay in Bedside Care post orientation and 2 years experience?
Within 5 years, we will desperately import Nurses from third world countries.
My Son is Gen Z, and Nursing is the last in his Career List. He describes his Dream Job as easy, quick, earns lots of money, enjoyable, fun and makes him happy. No Stress. More Freedom and flexibility. Obviously, that is not Nursing is real life. His idea of “Work Less, Earn More,” are just one of the millions of Gen Z in YouTube, Insta, Tech World and eBay doing them already.
Again, New Nurses are very different from the Baby Boomers, the Gen X, the Gen Y and the Millennials. My Son’s thinking, attitude and behavior will be very different from mine if he decides to be a Nurse. And that’s a big if.
Gen Z gets paid with money for their passion, Older Generations makes money to buy their passion or have time for their passion. Very different.
World Gen Z is real. Their Dreams are real. They are Globally Diverse very much into Collaboration, Trends, Tech Evolution, Stocks, Bitcoin Investments, Online Marketing. They are their own Brand, Boss and Spokesperson. In minutes to hours, they can create Viral Memes, Videos, Images and Stories that catches the World attention, make tons of Followers and yes, lots of quick, easy money . Gen Z are the Future and Older Adults need to seriously listen, learn, focus and invest on them.
Who are the Generation Z? They are Children and Young Adults born in 1997 – 2012 with age from 10 – 25.
The Millennials used to the “In” group, born from 1981 – 1996, aging from 26 – 41. Gen Z are now the Popular Kids and calls Millennials, “Old.” Which means me, being a Gen X, born 1965– 1980 and aging from 42– 57, my Son and his Friends sees me as a “Dinosaur.” Getting Old is both cruel and funny.
Mr. Montero is a Gen Z and is already changing the World at 16. He is advocating for himself and other Teenagers in America to be able to decide for themselves to get COVID vaccine or not. He is trying to pass a Law so Teenagers like him doesn’t have to sneak out and risk themselves traveling to other cities that allows vaccination without Parental Consent. Link is his video audio interview by NPR, which I thought was very impressive and important. He spoke his truth and acted on his Truth that many Parents are denying their Children who are old enough to make mature, reasonable decisions. Teenagers should be entitled to own their Bodies and Choices when the decisions of Parents and Guardians places the Teenagers safety and health at risk.
The World is in chaos because the Old refuses to give up the World to the Young and the Better. The Old refuses to give up Power, Money and Fame because they are in themselves drugs and addiction. The Young are the Hope of our Nation but we Adults don’t want to share that Hope because it’s too addicting to let go. We are afraid to loose everything when we could have anything.
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This Man's Journey 
Hello, our nurses are overworked but underpaid. What’s your take on the small being vaccinated? My grandson is 9 and my daughters wants to have vaxxed.
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If it’s FDA approved, I should say go for it. Vaccine versus complications of serious covid, I’d rather have vaccine. And the world is opening all together like a bandaid so many will get sick, kids included.
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As one who has willingly taken three COVID-vaccine injections, as well as the annual influenza shots, I basically believe the science behind the stated safety and benefit of vaccines in general. Still, I feel the term ‘science’ generally gets used a bit too readily/frequently, especially for political purposes. Also, I’m cautious of blindly buying into (what I call) speculative science, in general.
As disturbing as it sounds, due to increasingly common privatized research for corporate profit aims, even science, and perhaps by extension scientific ‘fact’, has become commercialized. Research results, however flawed, can and are known to be publicly amplified if they favor the corporate product, and accurate research results can be suppressed or ignored if they are unfavorable to business interests, even when involving human health.
Our version of the American FDA, Health Canada, was formally established to act in Canadian consumers’ best interests, yet it’s susceptible to corporate lobbyist manipulation. For one thing, it allowed novelty-flavored vaping products to be fully marketed — even on corner stores’ candy counters — without conclusive independent scientific proof that the product, as claimed by the tobacco industry, would not seriously harm consumers but rather help nicotine addicts wean themselves off of the more carcinogenic cigarette means of nicotine deliverance.
A few years before that, Health Canada had sat on its own research results that indicated seatbelts would save lives and reduce injury; it wanted even more proof of safety through seatbelts before ordering big bus manufacturers to install them in every bus.
To me, that smells of lobbyist manipulation — something that should not prevail in a government body established primarily, if not solely, to protect consumers’ safety and health rather than big businesses’ monetary concerns.
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Thanks for this information. It is very healthful and honest. Something we need more nowadays.
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As un-American as it may sound, long-term care homes should be state owned and operated, non-profit establishments.
Like some American states, there was nursing home neglect in Canada before Covid-19, although the actual extent was made horrifically clear only after the pandemic really hit. A most morbid example of the consequences of such neglect was the CHSLD Résidence Herron long-term care home in Quebec about 11 months ago, where 47 residents perished. The neglect — which eventually resulted in abandonment by overwhelmed and fearful staff — had become so extreme that the Canadian Armed Forces got involved.
Maximizing profits by risking the health or lives of product consumers will likely always be a significant part of the nature of the big business beast. Therefore, families may still have reason to worry over their loved-ones being left vulnerable by measures taken by some long-term care-home businesses to maximize profits.
Western business mentality and, by extension, collective society, allowed the well-being of our oldest family members to be decided by corporate profit-margin measures. And our governments mostly dared not intervene, perhaps because they feared being labelled as anti-business in our avidly capitalist culture.
I find astonishing that our society still allows the blatant commercialization of our dear senior citizens, even after the care-home COVID horrors. Why is it that nothing is off limits to big business interests, even that which we all should consider sacred?
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Thank you for sharing this. A horrific truth no one talks about or willing to bring to light so change could happen. Same thing is happening in America. And in the next few years, long term homes conditions could get worse as there are less staff to hire to give care as well as poor funding and government support. In any healthcare facility or system, it’s service and care is only as good as the quality and quantity of staff they have. Universal government funded care home and long term care home would be awesome as our social security is not enough with inflation and all. But will our government be willing to share there wealth to its citizens. Instead of billions in War expenses and Politics, better health and life for all should be our Nation’s priority.
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It’s really good for nurses to know that hospital administrators have their backs! /sarcasm
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Yes, I love Sarcasm too. Turns annoyance into humor. This is one survival must have for any frontline nurse in limbo.
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“Gen Z gets paid with money for their passion, Older Generations makes money to buy their passion or have time for their passion.”
This line really stuck out with me in your post and it is so true. We see this everywhere during the pandemic, especially in the field of healthcare.
It’s funny to think at the start of this pandemic how nurses and doctors were hailed as heroes and now it’s just whatever and it’s very upsetting to see.
The toll of this pandemic will be felt for years to come in the healthcare industry. I empathize and feel so badly for professionals such as yourself who bear the brunt of it in the frontline. Which is why it’s very upsetting when there are individuals who refuse to do their part to keep others safe. The sign one of the nurses was carrying about mask wearing in one of your photos says it all.
I hope you get to have some recharge some with your upcoming break. And thanks for all you’re doing in the frontlines!
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Thanks Ab for this very kind and thoughtful feedback. I appreciate the generous support and encouragement. CNN has this documentary, In The Same Breath, that shows how people were lied upon and used, if not silenced by Leaders and Hospital Administrators both in Communist China and Free Country U.S.A. There’s this big propaganda about calling Healthcare Heroes, either to appease them or make them quiet of what they were actually seeing. Both governments lied and covered up so many things, and whistleblowers were fired of their jobs, threatened and in China, they just disappeared. I asked one day a friend who works in ICU at the peak of Asian Hate Crimes last Winter surge how they are treated in the Hospital, she said, “Oh, we have an ICU COVID patient who spit on one of the Nurse for being Asian. In the Hospital, Racist Patients can get away with Hate and Violent Crimes, so they do it. Patients can always say they were confused or delirious when in fact it was intentional harm. So, they get away with it.” Another Truth? Her story proves the Hero propaganda was also selective only depending on Color and ethnicity. It’s even evident in TV News coverage and advertisements. Asian American and Filipino Healthworkers in their scrubs should be equally treated with respect and gratitude if indeed they are Heroes, but many People with Racial Hate and Prejudice don’t see them that way. They are seen as enemies, outsiders, carriers of the virus simply for looking Chinese because Trump then called covid, the “China Virus.” And his supporters believed it. And that Hatred for anyone Chinese Looking grew and bear bad to deadly fruits. The Hero propaganda was also created so nurses will be motivated to stay even if they are working in the worst and most unsafe conditions. It worked in Spring 2020, but Nurses realized after how they are just being used and so many left starting end of 2020 to entire 2021. If things don’t changed how Nurses are treated, they will go somewhere where they are appreciated, compensated and protected. Many have joined Travel Nursing because it gave Nurses trapped in certain cities and Hospitals a way to exit for relief, survival and for something better. In the end, it’s the local citizens of communities that will suffer the effects of understaffing. I’m sure our Government will come out with another propaganda to cover it up. Till today, Nurses can not just freely speak out in public or social media of anything that involves public safety. Those who do takes a big risk of facing a panel of Administrators and Managers, followed by “ Goodbye.” With Unions, the Nurse may have a fighting chance. It is a time of living dangerously as a healthcare provider not just from the virus, but from People acting like Gods.
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Thanks for sharing this story. I agree with you about the government and media propaganda. At the end of the day, US and China – and other governments really – are the same. The Asian hate crimes during the pandemic were deplorable, no doubt fueled by Trump’s waning presidency. And I’m sorry that you had to be one of the individuals to bear the brunt of it. 😔
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I’ll bet the anti-East-Asian racism is even worse if the target happens to be deemed professionally successful and/or has managed greater savings (etcetera), regardless of it all having been through hard work and/or thrift budgeting.
Sometimes the victim is a convenient scapegoat and/or political sacrificial lamb. For example, the 2007-08 financial crisis resulted in the biggest, and perhaps the most culpably corrupt, mainstream U.S. bankers NOT being criminally indicted; instead, they were given their usual multi-million-dollar performance bonuses (as though nothing ever happened) via taxpayer-funded bailout.
Yet, the justice department, in a classically cowardice act, only charged some officials with a relatively small-potatoes Chinese-American community bank that couldn’t really fight back and who looked different from most other Americans.
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You speak the truth. I know this because I am one of those who lost one’s house while my banker made double profit, government bail out plus selling my house to highest bidder. And now, real estate and banks are doing the same mistake, unregulated to the roof housing prices which eventually could collapse like in 2008 cause it’s unsustainable. Then another bank and mortgage bailouts while middle income millions of homeowners will loose their house and their dream. The dream home idea is really Capitalism and Banks propaganda. Perfect idea to have everyone in dept for 15-30 years. People whines on losing their freedom with wearing mask, but real loss of freedom is really when we owe money and we have to work to pay what we owe. Looks like cycles are just repeating itself. I appreciate this very informative feedback. People needs to read it and learn from it.
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Your bitterly-true words caused my blood pressure to spike 10 points. Yet, here in the West, one regularly hears Useful Idiot concerns/fears about some perceived extremes of socialism taking over! …
When it comes to unhindered capitalism, I can see corporate CEOs shrugging their shoulders and defensively saying that their job is to protect shareholders’ bottom-line interests. The shareholders meanwhile shrug their shoulders while defensively stating that they just collect the dividends and that the CEOs are the ones to make the moral and/or ethical decisions.
One wonders whether the unlimited-profit objective/nature is somehow irresistible to those biggest-of-big-businesses people, including the willingness to simultaneously allow an already squeezed consumer base to continue so — or be squeezed even further? It brings to my mind the allegorical fox stung by the instinct-abiding scorpion while ferrying it across the river, leaving both to drown.
Still, there must be a point at which the lopsided status quo — where already large corporate profits are maintained or increased while many people are denied even basic securities, including environmental — can/will end up hurting big business’s own economic interests. I can imagine that a healthy, strong and large consumer base — and not just very wealthy consumers — are needed.
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Thanks for sharing a truth many don’t see or refuse to see.
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Thanks Ab. At the start of Asian Hate Crimes in SF, my wife told me to avoid the city. I asked her why. She said, “You looked so Chinese.” Her worry is a realization to a truth many Asians and Filipino Americans still feel and experience, that they are second class citizens, in this case, second class healthcare heroes. Sometimes, something bad has to happen for people to realize racial prejudice and discrimination is still very prevalent in Western Countries. As for nursing care, we try to give the best care to all equally. Comfort and safety of others first before our own. It’s just how Nurses are universally in the World.
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What I admire about some Asian cultures is their general belief in and practice of not placing their aged family members in seniors care homes. As a result, their family caregivers did/do not have to worry over those loved-ones being left vulnerable by cost-cutting measures taken by some care-home business owners to maximize profits.
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That is true. Thanks.
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My mom and one of my sisters are nurses. I have so much respect for what they do and even more so during the pandemic. We have a shortage of nurses here in Ontario as well. Given the high inflation and that housing has become unaffordable for many, I can see why the next generation of kids may not want to work as hard. What’s the incentive? There’s more to life than just work, maybe they have the right idea of putting themselves first instead of their careers.
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A worthy article. Reminds us of the things we take for granted and the un-mindfulness for others. Smh.
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Yep, and it’s towards year 3 of the Pandemic. If nothing will be done, next surge, Hospital Administrations will cry for help again, “We’re Overwhelmed. We’re Short Staff. We need help!” Okay, should they have been better prepared with staffing by now. Until they treat their nurses right, pay them well, and protect them, they will cry for help every surge, season after season. For the victims of work abuse, it’s justice and revelation of what goes on behind the walls of Healthcare Systems.
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I hope that nurses thank the Biden administration for the vaccine mandates for HCW. Even losing ten percent of nurses because they are unvaccinated would be a huge hit.
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It is, but in real life Nurses are treated secondary to Patients and Doctors. Which means, Hospitals would rather fire the 10% percent unvaccinated nurses and hire 10% vaccinated travelers or just work the unit short staff than loose customers and money. It’s the truth we are suppose to keep quiet.
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Lol, travelers aren’t necessarily vaccinated. In fact, the unvaccinated who are fired often become traveling nurses. They work for the most desperate of hospitals.
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That is true. Overall , vaccinations requirement in workplace will never be just nor equal. Hospitals requires it but other work places don’t. It is sad because good experience workers who served and gave so much of themselves to their place of work were treated like dispensable trash. That’s an outrage, very inhuman. And now, in the outside work, mingling of the vaccinated and unvaccinated in small confined spaces are okay at a time of ongoing outbreak? Nurses who chose to be not vaccinated should have equal rights as those who did get vaccinated. For now, our Government is in a big confusing mess.
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Don’t get lost in Arizona. Keep your sense of Yuma.
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