Re: India - Wave of the Future - Evolve?

[eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com]

Goober Writer <gooberwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote on 09/08/2003 09:49:20 AM:

> The nursing profession is being outsourced about 80%
> of the time, and it's being outsourced to companies
> employing people with little to no nursing experience,
> because they can pay them $10-$15/hr. These "nurses"
> can rarely set an IV, and know little more than how to
> take someone's blood pressure or change a bedpan.

But, by what justification should a hospital need to pay a cardiothoracic
experienced nurse 45$/hr to change bedpans or take temperatures or blood
pressures? As long as the job description of these aides doesn't include
setting IVs, what's the problem.

It only makes sense to use resources effectively and put the experienced
workers where they are most needed. Lightened of the
simple/repetitive/menial tasks of taking temperatures and blood pressures,
changing bedpans, filling in patient records, the professional nurse can
oversee more patients, perform more procedures, or be involved in more
surgeries.

While the story of a patient being killed is horrific, it shows a failure
in the processes/controls/management applied to the assistant nurses. If
there was negligence/incompetence on the part of the "underqualified"
worker, then they should be reprimanded and possibly prosecuted. But
first, it is the responsibility of hospital administration and possibly
the supervising nurses to show that the employee was properly
instructed/managed/supervised.

Same goes for techwriting. By what justification can a professional
techwriter claim that a company must pay 50$+/hr for data entry or
re-formatting?

If you can identify which tasks can be done by anyone, or by judicious
planning/management increase the number of tasks that can be done by
anyone, the skills of qualified techwriters can be put to better use.

Eric L. Dunn
 Senior Technical Writer