Author: Shawn Whatley

Income vs Life-time Earnings

Life-time earningsWell meaning parents tell their kids to work hard in school, get good grades, and become a doctor.  My office assistant referred to my job the other day as, “The Golden Pen.”

No question, society values physicians.  When doctors finally start their own practice, they earn a generous income for working longer hours than average.

But, before you tell students to become doctors, ask yourself the following:

Is it better to earn a high income working long hours after a long, expensive education?

Or,

Is it better to earn a lower income, with shorter hours after a short, less expensive education?

Of course, finding happiness and fulfilment depends on more than how much money you make.  Students might enjoy work in another industry.  Advising only to ‘do what you love’ to a young person who has no clue what a job entails seems paternalistic and trite, not wise.

Life-Time Earnings

This link suggests that, after considering total hours worked and cost of training, teachers earn more per hour than physicians in the US: The Deceptive Salary of Doctors.

Considering Ontario teacher salaries, it becomes even more important to give young people accurate advice.

Of course, income plays only a small role in job satisfaction.  Job stress, risk of exposure to violence and lethal infections, and level of personal control, and dozens of other issues all impact joy at work.  These will mean more to some, and less to others.

In the end, be careful about using social biases, urban myths, and news headlines to guide career advice.

(photocredit: bmo.com)

The Last Pages – Promoting My Daughter’s 1st Book

TheLastPagesFront

My Daughter’s First Book

My 14 year old spent her summer furiously clicking on her MacBook.  Two years later, her first novel, The Last Pages, is ready for pre-order on Amazon.com. She has a contract for book 2, and has a 3rd well under way.

 

Young adult novels command a huge chunk of the publishing market right now.  If you know of any YA readers, tell them to check out The Last Pages by Lara Whatley!

 

No Time For Patient Care?

patient careSome argue that patient care is all or nothing; that we cannot give part of it and still do a great job.  Unless we do a ‘proper job’ and give idealized patient care, we should not even start.  ‘Proper’ care requires thorough examination, investigation, treatment and discharge excellence.  If it isn’t ‘proper’, then you should not do it.

The same people find time to

  • take breaks
  • talk about honeymoon plans
  • visit with police, fire, or ambulance personnel
  • help their colleagues

All this while completing their patient care work.  They find time during the day for things they value by adjusting the time they spend with patients.  Most of the time, this is reasonable.  Each patient requires a different amount of care.

Patient Care: Discrete or Continuous?

Sewing together a skin laceration is a discrete event.  You cannot sew it halfway.  Hanging an IV requires a certain minimum time to complete.  You cannot hang half an IV.  Closing lacerations and hanging IVs are discrete tasks that will always require at concrete minimum of time and effort by even the most efficient provider.

Most patient care depends on providers and patients.  It varies widely.  Some patient histories contain only a few words while others require pages and could go on for days.   Most patient care exists on a continuum from a few seconds, to minutes, to many hours.

Cutting Corners

Patients especially appreciate care when they know we can’t give them the whole deal.  They know and appreciate when corners were cut to provide them some relief, any small help.

Providers, who argue for rigid ratios of nurses or doctors to patients, or ideal numbers of patients seen per hour, think of care as bundles of ideal service.  The same people tend to defend waiting rooms and boarding admitted patients in overcrowded emergency departments.

In a system stretched beyond function, we need to provide some patient care even when we cannot give it all.  We need to do something – anything – for patients suffering and waiting, even if it’s not ideal.  For most patient care, just a few seconds can make a world of difference.

(photocredit: dailymail.co.uk)