I don't think it's healthy or good that we lionize those who serve in the military

[rainbow4321]

45. Every so often when I see pols/powers that be do what you speak of...

I just have to shake my head.

I've worked in the healthcare system that takes care of them and have seen how the vets are shortchanged when it comes down to their healthcare, young and old.
We couldn't even get them a spoon to use after hours...had to hand them a tongue depresser as a substitute. Yes, really. Not even plastic ware is available after hours.
We've had some guy come around to tell us that we could only use ONE bed pad (called chux) at a time for any vet who needed one underneath them (we use them to put under patients who are likely to be incontintent of urine or stool while in bed). The reason: the bean counters at the facility decided that it was costing them too much money to purchase them more frequently. Forget the fact that using two lined up next to each other at a time keeps the linen better protected because alot of these patients are all over the bed and work their way off those protective pads if only one is used. And another no-no: don't put any extra ones in the patients' rooms...heaven forbid you have one handy and within reach if you walk in and see one needs to be changed..no, no...you have to tell the patient "back in a little bit..." as you go running to the stock room to get what they need.
One patient once said that when he asked a housekeeper for more paper towels in his room he was told by that worker that the system were "running out of money" so he was having a hard time keeping all the paper towel containers filled.
Then there was the frequent running out of supplies over the weekends...how the FUCK do you run low on things like oxygen tubing, IV tubing, and other vital stuff...WHY is the staff having to go on a ward to ward to ward scavenger hunt for this stuff because the supply dept tells you "um, we are out".
And staffing? Pfft. Can you say skeletal? One nursing assistant for 25 patients is not uncommon. And they then wonder why the licensed staff is so burnt out..sorry your medicines are late...I've spent the last hour filling up water jugs, getting vital signs, picking up meal trays out of rooms, taking blood sugars..I'll get to MY job as soon as I get done doing the job of 3 other people since, once again, the supervisor has pulled our staff to another ward...the manager has stopped staffing our floor the way it should be staffed because she knows all that will result in is our people being pulled elsewhere. Better, in her eyes, just to short change us from the beginning and staff minimally.

But no worries...as all of this goes on, on the TV's in all the rooms you can watch the news and see pols and powers that be saying how proud they are of the vets and that we should be grateful to them and posing for photo ops.