Ji Lin, no disrespect but this is a huge, obvious fallacy -- false equivalency. You simply cannot compare a nurse with a sore throat to a person who has been in continuous close contact with Ebola in Africa and has returned to the U.S! They are two totally different situations, and I think it's safe to assume that HCW's returning from Africa are on high alert both for their own sake (it's scary stuff!) and for the possibility of spreading the infection. I don't believe they'd ignore symptoms and go to work just like a nurse with a slight tingle in his throat during cold season. Get real.
You have completely missed THE POINT--and it referred to not only nurses, but doctors, and other healthcare personnel, like RRTs, etc. No kidding the two are different, lol.
The mentality pounded into healthcare workers like physicians, nurses, RRTs, etc is one of "
Suck it up and come into work, regardless if you have a cold, walking pneumo, and contagious GI bug..." Once you have programmed people to think like that (and as an aside point, I am saying that alone is so WRONG for more reasons that I care to elaborate on at this point),
it's tough to break it. So they (
healthcare people) begin to think as they were programmed to think, and they push out of their mind their symptoms and so forth and go on with life. This is just ONE of the very things that make healthcare workers that have worked closely with sick Ebola patients even riskier--as we have seen with Dr. Spencer in NY. What did he do? He went out and about, on subways, bowling, out to dinner, etc. He went on with life as usual; b/c,
first, it's a human response to think, "Oh it will never happen to me."
Secondly, healthcare workers are trained to blow off sickness, bugs, etc, because the hospitals want their butts at work no matter what. So, it's more of a built in mechanism pounded into healthcare people. It's almost some horrible shame to admit you may have something or are coming down with something, and the HC employers expect you are there no matter what--infecting others with WHATEVER cold virus or GI virus--and somehow, the
whole HC world cannot function without you when you are ill. It's nonsense.
So, now you have people working with very contagious patients who have been trained in that same mentality--built into them over time.
What makes anyone think they will routinely bypass this conditioning after they come home from caring for Ebola patients? You can tell them, as a mother does to her children, not to do something; but once a habit is established--a mentality is ingrained, it's tough to break.
Interestingly I would add, that the nurse in Texas named Amber that got on a flight to carry on with business as usual was raked over the coals, even after being directed by someone at the CDC that's she's good to go; whilst the physician in NY is called a hero by many--even though he was flagrantly irresponsible.
So, yes, in fact, healthcare workers already have ignored tingles in their throat and general viral malaise.
The
point had nothing to do with comparing Ebola to a typical cold virus or the like. It is about how we program HCWs, and how that is a problem for Ebola as well as the stupid other colds and GI bugs we expect them to go into work with and share with everyone else. In short BH, it is about a trained/ingrained mentality and how it already posses a problem when it comes to the various general colds and GI bugs, etc, and how this makes these folks perhaps more of a danger, b/c they have been taught and trained over time to suck it up and carry on with life. They may in their conscious minds think one way; but people often function by what is programmed and mixed in subconsciously. This is the point of indoctrination--so you don't have to worry about thinking things through all the time. It's been used in the military and other areas for forever for heaven's sake. Do you really think every thing you do, think, rationalize, is out of immediate, intellectual and logical reasoning? Are you really that naïve?
Medicine, nursing, and HC, well it hasn't really gotten the hypocrisy in this programmed attitude.
We should be examples to society and the general population by taking care of ourselves. We only push this with things like smoking; b/c employers want to reduce the insurance costs from their HC employees. They say it's to be an example to the GP; but in reality that is BS. It's about money. If they truly cared about being examples of good health and wellness to the GP,
they would not beat into HCWs about how they just need to ignore their contagious illnesses and keep on going--whilst they come in to the hospitals and clinics sharing their bugs with everyone else.
Again, this is something that has been ingrained into HC Ws over years. It is now part of the culture. It's part of the subconscious "think," not necessarily the conscious reasoning.
And please, before anyone goes there, I am not talking about making job-skipping babies out of healthcare workers. I am talking about when they are legitimately ill, and they need to take care of themselves in order to take care of their patients--as well as not make others sick around them. ONLY one hospital out of many have I seen administration not tolerate HC people--nurses, docs, etc, be sent home if they came in ill with a cold, GI bug, etc. Only one over two decades. And this was a non-profit cardiac/lung hospital. They had the integrity to say, "Go the hell home and get better, and don't expose the patients and other healthcare people and families to whatever you have." I wanted to stand an applaud them. Overall they had great post-operative recovery stats--the best in the country at that time. Someone there had some good sense.
Anyway, once more my point: since this ignore-attitude has been beaten into us, this mentality is also a problem when it comes to things like Ebola. Yes. I say our mentality may well be part of the problem, b/c everyone knows, healthcare workers are miraculously or stoically NEVER get sick or at least acknowledge it.
It's not merely what you tell people to do; it's how you have trained/programmed them to think over periods of time.
And might I add, have you never seen, how, often, HC people make the worst (least compliant) patients many times? I have worked in the HC field for decades. Yep. I have repeatedly witnessed this. Yes, it's anecdotal; but in general, we don't want to be the patients in a strong way; b/c it goes against who and what we are supposed to be. Some level of HC supermanism or superwomanism.
Know what? I am really beginning to think it's a good idea that the new MCAT will have more subjects like psychology and social sciences. Wow.
My point was not a difficult connection to make.
