The hospital resource is the time of the doctor's and nurses working at the hospital. Sometimes a patient who has some much more severe chest pain or condition will be waiting in the ER waiting area while some person complaining of a headache is treated first just because they showed up earlier. The poor abuse the ER as a method of standard care. People with insurance and required co-pay show up at the ER 40-50% less than those without any insurance.
I suppose, but people crack jokes at other people's expense all the time. I don't really see why this was newsworthy, that's all. As long as they're doing their jobs, all this is really worth is a "That's messed up, bro," then move on.
I understand what youre saying...and really, from my perspective, I dont care. But this song is essentially, the rich, making fun of the poor. If I was one of those patients, I think I would be bothered if my doctor was laughing at that song. Im just saying, from a different perspective, I could see how this wouldnt be a funny song. But I make lots and lots of money, so my perspective is different.
How are the medical students rich? Most often times they are poorer than the people they are treating. They have no income. No job. And have six figure debt.
It's insulting, all right. It's "If you don't like it you should've gotten insurance"... I guess BCM students' aren't the smartest bunch, are they? ------------ But, seriously, folks... they are ridiculing and satirizing a public service, whether it were for Hispanics or Indian people, it doesn't make it any better. This is unprofessional. No serious doctor would do this. Is it insulting? For most of us who aren't doctors, it's not. For those who are now doctors and take their jobs seriously and provide life-saving services, I think it is.
I don't hear it that way. The most important lines are among the last, a reversal: [rquoter] Your healthcare is provided by med students/ It's okay if you ain't got insurance/ Across the street you may not stand a chance/ But Baylor's got some damn good med students...[/rquoter] Let's face it: doctors at Ben Taub work in a broken system. The poor in this country shouldn't have to go to an emergency room just to get standard medical care, or be funneled into one of few charity hospitals with terrible waiting times/limited budgets, but they have no choice. This situation is FUBAR. But Ben Taub doctors do the best they can in that system. Their trauma / emergency room, as has been stated, is top notch. This song strikes me as gallows humor, a little levity when faced with a nigh impossible task, and facing it day after day after day. Who better than those doctors to realize how screwed up the system is? Most hospitals turn away those without insurance (non-emergency). These doctors treat the poor. The indignation, the true fight lies not with this one song, in one after-work talent show. It lies somewhere else, with the for-profit medical & insurance industry as a whole.
Maybe they dont have money in their bank accounts, but they are living very comfortable lives compared to those they treat. I was in that situation in dental school...except that my school cost 80k per year, far more than any medical school in the country...but I wasnt hurting for food, for entertainment, for pleasure, etc...sure, I had 6 figure debt, but in no way was I in the same position as those that I treated. My patients struggled to find a way to eat on a day to day basis. No medical student faces that type of daily struggle to survive.
All politics aside, there is virtually nothing that is going to stop some people from having their 3rd kid by their 18th birthday, clogging up ER waiting rooms with headaches, random objects crammed in their asses, or needing to be put on a vent because they OD'd on vicodin. The simple truth of the matter is that some people are just plain stupid, and the staff who have to care for them regardless of and more often than not, because of that stupidity need to blow off steam one way or another. But you go on ahead with your 'elitist' doctor paranoia if it makes you feel better. You'll still get whatever treatment you need should you have to go to the hospital. Then you don't know many doctors. Pretty much. Damn thread is full of crybabies.
Maybe Im not the right person to get involved in this discussion...Ive spent thousands of hours treating the poor and the homeless. Ive walked down the street and literally gone from homeless to homeless, turning them over on the sidewalk and helping them. The things I have witnessed are things that I couldnt have ever imagined existed. Ive been incredibly blessed and lucky to never have to worry about food, clothes, shelter, etc... Its never been a thought thats crossed my mind. However, I know whats out there. Its easy to think, "oh yeah, sure there are poor people out there"...but until you see how effed up their bodies are, how much help they truly require, and how screwed their futures are sure to be, then its a hard concept to grasp. So, poking fun at them could be humorous...but I also think that many people wouldnt find it funny at all. EDIT: In conclusion...is it insulting to me? Not at all. If I showed that clip to some of my patients, would they feel insulted? Yes, I can bet that many of them would feel insulted. Something tells me that if those med students had to perform that song in front of 500 Ben Taub patients, that they would respectfully decline.
I'm not sure how you read this underlined part, but its just a knock on UT-Houston. The two schools are literally right across the street from one another We've got a "rivalry"...
Everybody - poor, hispanic or not - should be insulted by someone with a 3rd kid by 18 or crashed under the influence. They're just talking about what they see daily. If they made a list of the types of patients they see daily, people would call it a census. They're just singing to it. lol
The video is not a big deal, I'd just generally prefer to see as much professionalism as possible from those in the medical field. Especially since having noticed a change in the behavior of medical professionals in recent years- mri techs with bloodshot eyes, dr.'s wearing bluetooth headsets & low cut blouses showing cleavage (I know, it seems like a good idea on paper), hospital workers ramming gurneys into a wall while distracted by a conversation with a coworker, phlebotomists smelling like weed, flippant attitudes, apathy etc. Or maybe that's always gone on & i just never noticed as a kid. But that's in the workplace. what they do on the weekends is their business, I'd just rather not see it.
Is that not the reality? Or, at least, a reality that this doctor/med student has faced, recognizing a cycle of poverty? Are we to pretend that poverty, need, brings with it a nobility of character as well? I've dealt with many poor people in my life. Many of their stories are indeed ennobling. And many, not so much.
