I'm currently working under my 20th CPR card, my 15th ACLS and PALS cards, and - thank a merciful Heaven - only my 8th TNCC cert, because that only has to be re-certified every four years, rather than every two. So in the pages of the latest edition of that last manual is where I'll be for most of the next couple of days. Proctored by someone who's been in the business for a third as long as I have, and stopped doing hands-on nursing of any sort five years ago. Sideways, with a rusty chainsaw to that nonsense.
I get that things change, and I'm fine with having initiates learn this the first time or two. The rest is something that could be covered in an online video and check-off box, unless someone has notably effed up for reals. Think of how jackassical it would be to force your plumber to re-learn plumbing every few years, after they'd been doing it for a career.
Beyond a certain point, you're not teaching, least of all anything really new; you're just flogging a dead horse in pursuit of rent checks for the certification agencies and entities, most of whom haven't practiced anything medical at the bedside with real patients in decades.
So who's kidding who here?
Let's cut the bullshit, and just call this a Ponzi scheme, powered by grift and shakedowns, from The State to The Agency to The Hospital to The Department, and just let me write you a suitable check to leave me the hell alone, and tell you to fuck right off and let me get back to doing my job without the Good Idea Fairies and Clipboard Commandos justifying their existence at the expense of both my precious time and earned-by-sweat-and-blood paycheck. Would $50 be enough to make that pay off all around?
Oh, sorry. A little too on-the-nose there, was I?
Back to the textbook...
12 comments:
Last time ACLS came around they actually taught us something new. They blitzed through the routine stuff and had enough time to take us back to the lab.
FYI. Here in the UK plumbers do need to go through re-assessment in order to install, repair and maintain gas heating and hot water installations. Every 5 years and also pay for the literal 'loicence for that'.
All at great expense in money and time, especially for the self employed and after that, our customers.
I feel your pain.
IT has had this certs disease for years. My experience is I see new tech come thru the front door 3 yrs before I would ever see anything from a cert. I understand your pain Aesop.
ACLS first showed up at our hospital around 1977. It was a three day course that also included IV and intubation skills.
I recerted every two years.
At age 67, up for my twentieth recert, the mega code examiner was an angry Victoria Nuland clone. She ran me up every limb and down every branch, apparently for whatever reason looking for a way to fail me. I stood for somewhere between 1/2 hr and 45 minutes, at times having to dig deep for rationales. Finally (by which time my palms were damp and my mouth dry) she said “sit down, you pass.” Two years later at age 69 I went back to do it again, not willing to be forced into retirement by a bad experience. The proctor this time was an upbeat gal in her thirties who kept turning to me when questions were asked of her that she didn’t feel expert enough about. Night and day better, I qualified quickly and easily.
Only to be driven out at age 71 by the covid bull$h!t and my refusal to get the jab.
Eff ‘em, life is good!
SP RN
I remember this "stuff", hated it. Now that I'm retired I happy to be rid of it. By the way, I retired in 2005, so the mandatory experimental "vaccines" were not an issue way back then.
I hated the recerts (ACLS,BLS,CCRN). I used to argue that after 20 recerts, you should be exempt.
They have to change the algorithms slightly to justify their existence. Back in the 70's it was much harder to get ACLS certification. Once they started making it mandatory in acute care settings, it got a lot easier. Retired 10 years ago, so I no longer give a fuck.
Mike, RN
A lot of the trades- electricians, plumbers, auto techs, steelworkers....
We all have to take 'continuing education' yearly to keep out licenses.
It's usually just something to do with a new part of the building code, but it's a requirement to keep your license.
I have no quibble with continuing education. Would that was what was on offer.
My gripe is with continuing grift and shakedown, while providing no new information, and doing it solely to secure rent checks for the grifters.
Yeah, I think you've got it by now, or you're never gonna get it.
Airline Captains do check rides every 6 months, unless the airline has AQP. Then it’s once a year. Don’t complain too much, it could be worse.
I get your frustration and pain... for decades in passenger aviation, I had similar hoops to jump through... I did have one experience that 'almost' made up for the headache and hassle... Our training often was at corporate, and I was sitting in the back of the classroom. One of the facilitators came to me and offered the opportunity to sit up closer to the front. I declined, and it was as she was taking attendance that she realized that my name was one of the names printed on her training materials, as an author... didn't ever exempt me from the "training"; but she smiled, learning the 'why' of my choice of seating.
Yep, ponzi scheme is right. 'Somebody' has to pay for all those bureaucrats!
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