[CCM-L] Busy weekend - nursing shortage

[Jane Harper]

I would challenge the statement about student loans -- having over $200,000
of them myself, I know about working under a student loan burden.  Don't
forget, the average nurse right now is in her 40's and trying to put her
CHILDREN through college ...

One of the upsides of having worked in a small physician practice is that I
was in the same office with all four of the partners and was privy to their
phone discussions with their tax preparers at the end of the year.  The
YOUNGEST of the four partners paid taxes on more than $400,000 his 3rd or
4th year in the practice, and he was no "specialized proceduralist", but
rather a general surgeon.

Physicians and nurses could be natural allies, but economics trumps
everything and personally, I'm reluctant to stake my future on supporting
folks who would deny me the right, after eighteen years of pursuing a PhD,
to call myself 'doctor' when I finish...

Jane


On 7/15/08 8:45 AM, "Jeff Myers, D.O., Ed.M." <myersj at alum.rpi.edu> wrote:

> Jane Harper wrote:
>> It's easy to say that physicians and nurses should stand together -- but
>> which of the two professions can better survive a work stoppage, a new
>> graduate nurse who (in this crappy economy) is sole support for a husband
>> and three children or a physician making $400,000 a year?
>> 
>> Jane
>>   
> Jane,
> 
> Two comments:
> 
> 1) Except for a small handful of specialized proceduralists, the
> overwhelming majority of the physicians you come in contact with may
> less than half of that figure, some close to 25%
> 
> 2) The average physician in the US comes out of their education with 3 -
> 4 times the students loans that the new nurse does.  For physicians that
> are less than ten years out, there isn't much difference in disposable
> income.
> 
> If the nurses and physicians do not stick together, period, and support
> each other, then the system fails.
> 
> Jeff Myers, D.O.
> 

-- 
Jane Harper, PhD(c), RN, APN
Trauma Nurse Practitioner, Rockford, IL