That doesn't seem to be working too well ...

[Pixelated]

When I lost my last full-time job (journalism), I went to my siblings for advice on where to go next. Both said "Health-care is where the jobs are!"

Well, it didn't work for me; the closest I wanted to get to sick people was in a pharmacy, and that turned out to be not a viable option for an English major ...

My brother is a high-ranking official in a health organization in Canada. Sis lives in the U.S. and is a nurse-practitioner. Now, she lived in the central U.S. (think Bible belt and gunz ...) for about a decade. She then moved to the West Coast. After a few years there she moved halfway across the country in an eastern direction and is now within half an hour of me.

And she's just advised me she's looking for a job again ...

ATM I don't know why, whether her current job has disappeared (or will do so) or whether it's just not working out.

I'm thinking maybe health-care wasn't where it's at after all ...

[Buzzard]

Health care can be a damned stressful career path. Sadly, it's patient care that can be the lesser-sucky part of it, too.

[Pixelated]

It would certainly appear so. The more I see of the job market in general, the happier I am that I am semi-retired. I can't afford to stop working entirely, but I *can* afford to take whatever's out there without worrying too much about the future.

I know sis has been in patient care, in one area or another, for her whole career. Brother, on the other hand, is in upper management.

[Nunavut Pants]

Sadly, it's patient care that can be the lesser-sucky part of it, too.

According to one friend of mine who is now a doctor, manglement can find ways to make that super sucky as well. His favorite phrase to hate on last month was "patient-focused care". Which basically to the Powers That Be where he used to work means, "Give them whatever they want, especially pain meds, no matter what they actually need."

He said as soon as his med school loans are paid off, he is bailing out of the industry. Possibly doing medicine part-time on his own.

[jedimaster91]

There's certainly no shortage of a need for more front-line healthcare workers, but just like every other industry they want one person to do the work of three without the resources to do so and then wonder why their employees are unhappy and burnout is so high. Add in the cluster that is insurance and ever changing reimbursement rates, and you've got a real mess.