Ploofle

…Add to that list health professionals who totally get bent out of shape when the sanctity of their profession is questioned. In short, we had to read for class a publication concerning uninsurance and the health consequences of it, based on a literature review of that subject. One of the results thrown out included that ER patients without insurance get worse medical care in the ER than others. People began taking this very personally, as they were professionals who worked in the ER, saying things like “no doctor would ever give bad care based on things like insurance!” Or “stop pissing on the poor oft-maligned healthcare providers”, since we totally don’t normally go around appreciating them or anything.

As generalizations irritate me, as well as snow-white clean reputations of professions (say, clergymen are always celibate when they’re supposed to be, judges never have penis pumps under their robes, nurses never deliberately euthanize patients without consent), I responded. And a flurry of posts commenced. Maybe the data is way off – but shouldn’t you check their facts to see if they are valid points? All I’m saying is never questioning your fundamentals – be that of yourself, your career, your profession, your faith – is to entrap yourself in a situation of oblivious comfort and disconnect with your people.

In my little niche of personal professional-land, if you lose touch of that essence – that people in your shoes can and will do what is wrong – you can’t honestly say you’re working as a partner with people in need. Rather, you’re parachuting in to provide them with all the help they’ll need to be better people.

Tags: praxis