R.E.S.P.E.C.T....

After I wrote the last post, I went and read the opinions for today in our major media paper. There was one letter to the editor that struck a chord, a flat chord, with me. It had to deal with respect. The writer used the Bible to make his fucking point. The Bible, I have something to say about that but that will wait for a later post.

He claimed that we should respect firefighters, policemen, politicians, parents, the law, doctors, teachers... just to name a few. My rebuttal will be none of the titles listed deserve any respect. Now the people with those titles have to earn the respect. Like the old addage..."Respect is earned not a given" I am to write that politicians are the last type to be respected. I would respect a used car salesman before any politician.

Let's look at people who receive thier title because of a degree. Letters after a name can be pretty intimidating. M.D., D.O., R.N., N.R.P., blah blah blah... Many of the nurses I work with I respect but I would, in turn, like the same respect from them. We all work hard for a common goal in our profession and strive to achieve that goal everyday.

But what about the mechanic? The guy who works to fix automobiles not people. His end work can have similar consequesnces as a doctor or nurse. think of driving down the road at 75 M.P.H. The mechanic just worked on the passenger wheel assembly on your car. Something happens and your car rolls 4 times before coming to rest on it's top. You lay bleeding and broken until EMS arrives to take you to the hospital. How is that not different than a health care professional giving you the wrong medication or operating on the wrong organ.

My brother told me a story long ago when he was a garbage man. He was at a grocery store and two older women were in front of him in line. He overheard them talking about his job and the type of person it takes to do that job. He said they said, "any moron can be a garbage man..." To which he piped up, "Is that what you think? Moron? Okay lady, tell me what a PTO valve does and could you run the machine I run everyday? Because I would love to see you attempt it." The women stopped talking and went on their way. After he told me that story I had a new found respect for people in all lines of work from garbage men to doctor.

It all involves training and education but just because you have more schooling than another person doesn't make you a better person. Skills are different than that. Take me... I find it easy to learn skills. Once I have worked at it I can become quite proficient at it.

A nurse from one of the floors asked me a question the other day and interupted me half way through my answer. I got upset. I you are going to ask me a question, don't interupt me until I am finished. Just because it says BSN after your name doesn't give you the right to treat somebody that doesn't have those letters after their name. The only place those letter have any weight is in one building. Even doctors can't practice on people outside their base practice who are not their patients in South Dakota. So what I'm trying to say is, somebody with no graduate experience can be smarter than somebody that does.

Eric