"Part of the problem is that Americans just plain do not want to do the work."

[tavernier]

93. I'm an LPN

I work home health. The work that I once did on home health assignments now counts as Certified Nursing, so even with my LPN license, I receive CNA pay. I order and set up all the meds for my blind patient, take her vital signs and blood sugars and report them to her physician, work as a liaison between her doc and far away family, cook her meals keeping in mind her dietary needs as a borderline diabetic, and anticipate and deal with any and all daily challenges that might beset a blind 80 yr. old with multiple health problems, including Alzheimer's. In the past three years since coming to work for her, I have called her doc on two meds that were causing severe side effects which were immediately discontinued and suggested to the family a neurologist who started her on a medication that markedly slowed her confusion and disorientation.

Because my licensed nursing status has now been degraded to nursing assistant, I make a dollar less an hour than I did 22 years ago as a nurse. They recently hired a CNA for the night shift who comes when I leave. She is nineteen. My blind patient cooks her dinner and then the girl goes to bed for the night.

My agency (the largest in our county) cannot provide enough staff to patients because as I was told, "Most of the applicants can't pass the drug test."

I swear, you can't make this stuff up; no one would believe it!