HEALTH-CARE - INTRODUCTION

Hi! Thanks for inviting me in!

I’ve had a number of people ask me why I left my beloved career in Emergency Nursing to pursue Legal-Nurse Consulting. These two fields do seem to be on completely opposite sides of the fence. Maybe this would be a good time to answer that question and visit a bit about health-care.

The short story is that I saw way too much on both sides of that fence! Allow me to begin by saying that the majority of my colleagues in the medical field are wonderful people who truly have concern for those to whom they provide care. However, I have also worked beside health-care “professionals” who lacked moral principles, demonstrated no obvious compassion for those desperately needing their assistance and regularly exhibited careless use of skills.

Across that fence were multitudes of precious patients who were totally dependent upon us, the health-care professionals to be aptly qualified and willing to make challenging sacrifices for the purpose of meeting medical, emotional and spiritual needs in their time of crisis. However, I have also nursed more than enough “sue-happy” patients who were after whatever they could get in whatever way they could get it. The health-care field has become an easy target for these pursuits and the unfortunate result of such malicious behavior is that conscientious, compassionate people have lost their careers, possessions and often their families!

The depraved activity on both sides of this fence, ripped at my heart year after year. Yet, it seemed that there was little I could do from within the medical system to bridge the gap. Consequently, when it became evident that the only hope for change was from outside the system, I took the step into the legal arena. As if the interesting and challenging experience of this field were not enough, it eventually led me to truths that if I had not uncovered them for myself, it is unlikely that anyone could have convinced me of their validity!

My experiences in these two positions gave me enough evidence from “behind the scenes” to cause me to re-evaluate many things about the health-care field, its typical approach and effects on those seeking help from it. The results of these re-evaluations might be of interest to you, as well.

Allow me to “wet your whistle” a bit with a few questions:

*Have you ever wondered why, after having paid thousands of dollars into health insurance premiums, patients are discharged from the hospital before they have properly recovered because their insurance has “run out?”

*Have you ever speculated why a doctor takes a patient off a medication which seems to working fine in order to determine if this “new and improved” medication might be better?

*Have you ever questioned why both food and drugs are “approved” by the same administration?

*Are you aware that scientifically proven cures for various “incurable” diseases have been discovered, yet this information has been withheld from the general public?

Let’s spend some time in future conversations seeing if we can reach some reasonable explanations for these unsettling questions, shall we? You may be shocked at what we discover. I have been.

Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie