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From: barry@mit-eddie.UUCP (Mikki Barry)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Equal pay for comparable worth
Message-ID: <3638@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Feb-85 13:18:55 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.3638
Posted: Fri Feb 15 13:18:55 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 18-Feb-85 06:19:10 EST
References: <239@mhuxr.UUCP> <648@unmvax.UUCP> <2306@randvax.UUCP> <4732@mit-vax.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 26
Keywords: injustice multipliers gold bricks pain fatigue wiser

I don't know how many nurses you know, but it surely doesn't seem as if you
know their jobs very well.

These days, with the very low supply of nurses, many *DO* work 70 hours+ per
week.  A 2 second lapse in attention can wipe out a number of people on the 
floors.  Would you tell a nurse caring for someone you care about that its
ok to not pay attention for a few seconds while he/she is checking medication?

As for pain, i have known a good many nurses who have been beaten up by
patients.  (Contrary to popular belief, a nurse CANNOT sue or get any kind
of compensation for being injured by a patient).  Most of the incidents occur
while giving blood tests, or while waking up patients.  As for fatigue, after
seeing my nurses when I was in the hospital, caring for me for 10 hours at a
time, while simultaneously caring for a floor full of other people, I can tell
you they were quite tired.  Having driven for long stretches (10 hours per day)I can tell you I would rather be driving than having the responsiblility of
life and death over 20 patients or so.  You must be far more alert to check
and administer medication, and decide whether the doctor should be called than
to keep a vehicle in a lane.

And this isn't even mentioning the second class status many nurses are given
by doctors.

It seems a silly thing to me to say that truck drivers are more important than
nurses, just as it is silly to say that hackers are more important than 
sanitation workers.  Training and skill should be the issue, not an attempt to
decide which jobs are most important.