Still the other person’s point stands. It is a wage issue, but the questions isn’t just “How much money do you want?”, but alo “How much are you willing to do for that money?”.
Since this post was originally about AI, let’s return there. Many advances are being made with AI in elderlcare. Some more useful than others. Your point of people getting angry because they loose their independence is a recognised problem that people are trying to solve with technology, like communication apps and teaching elderly how to use technology to their benefit. But there are other solutions to think about. Like placing the facilities in a good location, where things like stores, hairdressers and restaurants are in walking distance. Or even making public transport more accessible. Also community is important. That has always been a struggle, but in the past decade I’ve seen a lot more events being organised in elder homes. Sometimes these events are organised internally, but there are also a lot of private companies who are trying to fill this need.
There are also a lot of technical innovations in care and monitoring. There are small, wearable heart rate monitors, blood sugar monitors, whatnot monitors, all kinds of monitors so nurses don’t have to come by twuce a day to measure someone’s values. There are smart diapers so you don’t have to clean someone hours after the fact, but you’ll get a notice immediately. Maybe there’ll even be smart showers at some point. This takes a lot of pressure of the (still understaffed) nurses who don’t have to walk as many rounds
All these advancements also mean that people will be able to live at home for longer and remain fairly independent for longer and therefor happier for longer.
So I think the question “How much are you willing to do for that money?” is not all the shit you said, but technology can help reduce the amount of shit you have to deal with. I think that, combined with better pay, better and fairer career chances, better treatment of lesser educated staff and more respect for the sector in general will make it so that more people are willing to choose nursing as a career.
That may be a lot to ask right now, but it’s something to strive for as a society. We’ve got a lot of pessimists on this platform, but I’ve met a lot of good people in the sector that are already working hard to make it better and are making steps every day.
P.s. I don’t work in elderly care, but I used to work for a company that delivered care aids to elderly people living at home.
I apologize for the.abrasive comments in the thread but it really grinds my gears when people think they can argue with someone who has been shit deep in experience while they have zero empirical rhetoric on the topic. My entire point has been that it isn’t a case of rich getting richer while their employees drown in the weeds. It’s a broken system top to bottom that cannot provide adequate compensation for a job that requires minimal training regardless of how mosserable the work is. A broken system designed and regulated by our broken government.
That’s awesome that AI is helping reduce the stress for the industry for the boots on the ground employees. However it’d be better news to find we are using AI to expose the actual cost to revenue gaps being negotiated between the pharmaceutical players and the health insurance players. Equally as encouraging would be using AI to fix our broken Medicare/Medicaid system that leave people out to dry once an arbitrary limit is reached.
I spent most my years in the industry working in the dementia and alzheimer units. If we had little fuckin AI bots to give residents to engage with, it would’ve been a godsend. I fuckin hated when a resident would still have lingering brief moments of lucidity and look right at you with this look of fear and confusion. In that moment of lucidity they remember things from their old life but won’t have a lock of a clue who I was or any of the hundreds of daily interactions I would have with them when they weren’t lucid. We were taught and I think it’s still S.O.P. to avoid correcting dimential/alz residents and to instead redirect their attention to something that will relax them. AI would be fuckin amazing for that. Helping the aids is fine a dandy but at the end of the day, the most help ypu could provide an aide is a tool that would help the residents enjoy life again and not hate that they need help and take it out on staff.
Still the other person’s point stands. It is a wage issue, but the questions isn’t just “How much money do you want?”, but alo “How much are you willing to do for that money?”.
Since this post was originally about AI, let’s return there. Many advances are being made with AI in elderlcare. Some more useful than others. Your point of people getting angry because they loose their independence is a recognised problem that people are trying to solve with technology, like communication apps and teaching elderly how to use technology to their benefit. But there are other solutions to think about. Like placing the facilities in a good location, where things like stores, hairdressers and restaurants are in walking distance. Or even making public transport more accessible. Also community is important. That has always been a struggle, but in the past decade I’ve seen a lot more events being organised in elder homes. Sometimes these events are organised internally, but there are also a lot of private companies who are trying to fill this need.
There are also a lot of technical innovations in care and monitoring. There are small, wearable heart rate monitors, blood sugar monitors, whatnot monitors, all kinds of monitors so nurses don’t have to come by twuce a day to measure someone’s values. There are smart diapers so you don’t have to clean someone hours after the fact, but you’ll get a notice immediately. Maybe there’ll even be smart showers at some point. This takes a lot of pressure of the (still understaffed) nurses who don’t have to walk as many rounds
All these advancements also mean that people will be able to live at home for longer and remain fairly independent for longer and therefor happier for longer.
So I think the question “How much are you willing to do for that money?” is not all the shit you said, but technology can help reduce the amount of shit you have to deal with. I think that, combined with better pay, better and fairer career chances, better treatment of lesser educated staff and more respect for the sector in general will make it so that more people are willing to choose nursing as a career.
That may be a lot to ask right now, but it’s something to strive for as a society. We’ve got a lot of pessimists on this platform, but I’ve met a lot of good people in the sector that are already working hard to make it better and are making steps every day.
P.s. I don’t work in elderly care, but I used to work for a company that delivered care aids to elderly people living at home.
I apologize for the.abrasive comments in the thread but it really grinds my gears when people think they can argue with someone who has been shit deep in experience while they have zero empirical rhetoric on the topic. My entire point has been that it isn’t a case of rich getting richer while their employees drown in the weeds. It’s a broken system top to bottom that cannot provide adequate compensation for a job that requires minimal training regardless of how mosserable the work is. A broken system designed and regulated by our broken government.
That’s awesome that AI is helping reduce the stress for the industry for the boots on the ground employees. However it’d be better news to find we are using AI to expose the actual cost to revenue gaps being negotiated between the pharmaceutical players and the health insurance players. Equally as encouraging would be using AI to fix our broken Medicare/Medicaid system that leave people out to dry once an arbitrary limit is reached.
I spent most my years in the industry working in the dementia and alzheimer units. If we had little fuckin AI bots to give residents to engage with, it would’ve been a godsend. I fuckin hated when a resident would still have lingering brief moments of lucidity and look right at you with this look of fear and confusion. In that moment of lucidity they remember things from their old life but won’t have a lock of a clue who I was or any of the hundreds of daily interactions I would have with them when they weren’t lucid. We were taught and I think it’s still S.O.P. to avoid correcting dimential/alz residents and to instead redirect their attention to something that will relax them. AI would be fuckin amazing for that. Helping the aids is fine a dandy but at the end of the day, the most help ypu could provide an aide is a tool that would help the residents enjoy life again and not hate that they need help and take it out on staff.