SedRate

Possibly. In hearing the various news stations being played in the doctors lounge, I have heard quite a few references to PAs. I actually heard a PA being interviewed yesterday and discussing our roll, especially during this crisis. I do hope that we continue to make our presence felt and known. It was a shame to overhear two anesthesiologists dissing PAs while the interview was going, one of whom just finished residency and the other out about 20-30 years. The young one has a thick accent, so I'm not sure if he's an FMG or just born in another country and came here. Regardless, they didn't like the idea of us pursuing independence and trying to get paid like the doctors. No mention of NPs pursuing independence, which I found interesting. I wonder if they've already accepted that ship has sailed?

Good luck to both of you. Hard times indeed. This is only the beginning, so buckle up and keep your wits about you. You guys will get thru this. Reduce your recurring expenses as much as possible. Verizon has some cheap plans and are temporarily extending data plans to accommodate current requirements. I pay $35/mo for 6GB with autopay. If you have Prime, get rid of the other services. Cancel paid music subscriptions. Call home owners insurance Co and ask for eval of coverage; we saved $500/yr, parents are now saving $1500/yr. Evaluate car insurance plan. Cancel any landscaping, pest control, pool servicing, etc you are able to take care of yourself. Start buying whole foods or in bulk and freeze instead of ready-made packaged goods that are twice the price per lb. Freeze or cancel gym memberships. These all add up! We're saving probably somewhere on the order of $1000-1500/yr just by reducing. My parents are already saving $2500/yr and they still have some other areas they can lean up.

Wow. Just wow... That right there is some bullcrap. I smell a lawsuit if an employee contracts it and dies due to improper protection and admin not allowing them to protect themselves. I urge you to inform your coworkers to keep record of all this and to share the statement by JC. I do hope they are protecting themselves...

Is your middle man still singing the same tune now that we're a week later into this mess? I'll just leave this Joint Commission announcement right here... I wonder what OSHA would have to say about the mask sitch?

Received this info from a friend in NY who's having to reuse masks. Stay safe, everyone.

RIP Captain Hickok

100% yes

PA school was hard and the first year or so out was challenging, but I think changing specialties was the hardest for me. I was well-respected by staff and good at what I did. But the practice changed, I was burnt out, and I wanted more out of my career, so I switched to a new field. To go back to being treated like a new grad again plus being treated like I don't know anything and have no say despite my experience with thousands of patients has been very hard. I think the key to changing specialties is finding a good group/practice to switch to aside from the actual field itself. I definitely did not find the right one. Ya live and learn.

Ugh. I love being a PA but sometimes I really second guess my decision not to pursue medical school. It's not too late, although medical school would set back my early semi-retirement goals...

It's not selfish at all. The fragility of life is very real, with or without something like this virus. We all take risks every day when we wake. Take solace in knowing that you're staying well-informed and protecting yourself and those around you. At this point, that's all we can do. And understand that you're not alone. We are all experiencing this together and we will get thru this. As for what we'll learn... I do hope it's that we no longer take life for granted and do what we can to live our best lives while we're here. Our country is very sick and we need a wake-up call. It's unfortunate that a pandemic is what will show us that what we're doing in healthcare (admin, insurance companies, infrastructure, "treat it not prevent it" mentality, etc) isn't working. I do hope to see significant change once this is all over.

The real sacrifice might be those hospitalized without medical personnel to care for them because everyone stayed home to protect their own family. Or the ones left in their nursing homes. Or the suicides due to unemployment and despair. You're right: there is no one answer. And that has always been a major issue in the US and probably part of the problem why we're in the situation we're in. We fear death here in America. We do all that we can to protect and extend life at all costs. However, we all will die, so life can only be protected for so long before inevitably, a natural disaster, freak accident, natural death, health complication, or cost burden takes it. I do not intend to live scared. Like sas said in a post, we all do not know our time. Three thousand people around the world die PER DAY in car accidents, yet we do not stop driving. The hypocrisy as to what constitutes a state of emergency is what bothers me the most: an unknown virus deserves economic shutdown yet run-of-the-mill deadly causes are ignored year after year or are expected as you say, like the flu, which people continue to ignore and contribute to the spread of. The projections you refer to also suggest a total course of 12-18 months, especially if we drag this out in an attempt to flatten the distribution. There won't be anything left of America if we don't resume our consumerism habits soon.

If we're going to have a lockdown, then it needs to be a lockdown. This half-assed lockdown is hurting more than helping and seems to be doing little in way of preventing transmission. America cannot function on a true lockdown, however, so this virus will not only burn thru the country but will also decimate our healthcare and economy if we continue on as we are. I truly do not think 1-2 million Americans will die even without a lockdown. Our communities and social system are different than most, and I believe we will fair better proportionally because of those differences. We're less dense and less socially tied to each other like other countries -- less large social gatherings for meals, less personal/intimate contact, less smoking (35% of Italian males smoke vs 15% Americans), younger population (average age 38 in US), and less public transit. The US has over 6,100 hospitals. I cannot find a quick reference for the number in Europe but I gotta assume it's less since we're a for-profit medical system. It will burn thru America. Workers are getting it despite PPE. (Higher total exposure?) We won't have much left to protect ourselves at a certain point because we're already exhausting our supplies and it's apparently just the beginning. So the point I keep trying to make is where do we draw the line?

"In total, the CDC estimates that up to 42.9 million people got sick during the 2018-2019 flu season, 647,000 people were hospitalized and 61,200 died. That’s fairly on par with a typical season, and well below the CDC’s 2017-2018 estimates of 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths." "116 children died from the flu this year, compared to 183 last year." "Until recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the annual mortality burden of influenza to be 250 000 to 500 000 all-cause deaths globally; however, a 2017 study indicated a substantially higher mortality burden, at 290 000-650 000 influenza-associated deaths from respiratory causes alone, and a 2019 study estimated 99 000-200 000 deaths from lower respiratory tract infections directly caused by influenza. Here we revisit global and regional estimates of influenza mortality burden and explore mortality trends over time and geography." And that's with a vaccine. The flu isn't some innocuous disease. Why aren't we shutting down every flu season? https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/5610878/2018-2019-flu-season/%3famp=true https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6815659/

Agreed. Keep fighting the good fight, and stay safe. We need you to hang around for a while longer. I'm glad to hear your wife is ok. Poor horse. Hopefully it wasn't someone's that got loose.

If only I was a slightly overweight graying guy... Haha. I guess I will just put up with it and keep expecting those responses but instead maybe take them as compliments?