Thursday, April 15, 2010
Nicole Stearns, Guest, Nursing Student
Hi. My name is Nicole and I am currently a student at Bellin College of Nursing in Green Bay. This is my sophomore year in Bellin's Nursing program but my junior year in nursing school. I do clinicals every thursday and friday so I have an understanding of healthcare and how people are paying for it. I agree that healthcare in America is a very controversial subject and many people have their own opinions. I think that Maggie was right when saying that people need to take more preventative actions. Many people do not go into the doctor for their physicals, mammograms, etc because they think that it is too expensive if it isn't covered under their insurance. This could possibly make things worse in the long run because cancer and diseases, which are the most expensive health problems and surgery, have decreased greatly because of preventative actions, which in turn saves the client more money. I also see many patients that do not take care of themselves and rely on medications to do the work for them. I think patients need to start making important lifestyle changes because that would decrease hospital visits and they would not need to be paying so much money for it. I have noticed during clinical that about 90% of the patients I have are in the hospital for problems such as emphysema (from smoking), renal failure (from drinking/eating unhealthy food), heart disease and many other problems. These people take about 20 medications a day, costing thousands of dollars. These problems could have been prevented by making lifestyle changes. These patients also stay in the hospital for days, weeks or even months, which costs even more money. The rest of the patients I've had are in the hospital for knee and hip replacements for arthritis because they were so active. These patients usually take about 5 medications and are out in 2 days, saving lots of money. Overall, I am a little undecided about how I feel about healthcare but I do think that people can save a lot of money by making lifestyle changes and taking care of themselves, which will save money for healthcare in the government to help others in need.
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Interesting comments! I heard yesterday from a distinguished physician at Northwestern that American research is paramount to the discovery of new drugs. As a pre-med student I've noticed a trend that the UK tends to begin marketing drugs often even a decade before. These drugs typically are proven safe and effective. Does the U.S. just have really high standards or is the U.S. just slow to adapt?
ReplyDeleteI guess I should have laid off the Kools and cheeseburgers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I am eventually going to own my own business and will be dealing with patients one to one. I will be taking more of a holistic approach that deals with getting to the root cause of their problem and not just giving them pills to mask the symptoms. This neither cures the patient and may even cause more problems in the long run. Nicole, you are 100% right about taking control of a person's own health and taken responsibility. A good start would be the right foods for the individual (not a one-size-fits-all diet) and moderate exercise; better to little than too much (over training).
ReplyDeleteThank you for authoring on this blog. I appreciate your thoughts about improving health care and hope you will comment on other postings in this blog or other blogs about health care.
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