From his commentary on the National Institute of Health Policy Blog:
NURSES MAY GO ON STRIKE IN MPLS – ST. PAUL
Have you ever heard of doctors threatening to go on strike if their income and hourly work demands aren’t met by their employers? I haven’t. However, doctors, unlike nurses, are able to increase their income by prescribing more medical services or creating shortages in their specialties or just lobbying for increases in pay for specific procedures. Doctors will refuse to see Medicaid patients to put pressure on state legislators; or refuse to see Medicare patients to pressure Congress. Or just not work in rural or inner city areas. Not nurses.
This is not an argument for nurses being able to do what doctors do, but a description of an unhealthy national health care system in which withholding of services is regularly rewarded, and making your professional skills and judgment more available under more difficult circumstances is penalized. It is an argument for professionalism and self-discipline among both professions. It is an argument for integrated care systems in which the risks and the rewards of patient care are shared among all those who choose to make a career of serving those of us in need.