Health Care is no longer the golden child

Well, I knew it was coming. After all, in certain areas of the country, hospitals have been closing all over the place. As a nurse, though, it is hard to see the end of health care as the golden child, the cash cow.

There was a time when I could honestly believe in my ability to go anywhere and do anything with the awesome power of the nurse label behind me. But now, we are just as vulnerable as the average human.

Last Friday, my department laid off 6 people. In addition, my favorite workaholic construction guy got laid off. He was the single force keeping my clinic remodel on track. I miss him dearly.

I'm somewhat amazed I didn't get laid off. After all, I am still on my probationary period. Plus, I am something of an idiot.

But, I guess there is intrinsic value in absolutely loving financial reports when you manage a clinic. I think I'm having a love affair with those reports. I carry them with me everywhere and snuggle them close. I just love them. How strange is that? But, it gets results. The contribution margin (profit) for my clinic is up from 19% to 28%. Remember, I'm still on probation.

Alas, nurses are not in demand the way they were just a short time ago. I still firmly believe that a good nurse can get a job anywhere. There may not be a nursing shortage anymore, but there will always be a shortage of intelligent people.

Now would normally be the time I would move on. After all, I bailed on computer programming at the dot com crash. I should be moving into the next big thing right about now. Is that China?

But, I seem to have fallen into an operations manager role. Having just (say Congratulations, damn it!) finished my Master's and MBA, I find that the business end of things is somewhat thrilling and managing a clinic allows me just enough nursing stuff to keep me engaged.

How much of an idiot am I that I can rave like this, but when my boss asked me what I liked best about my job, I couldn't think of anything? I've never had test anxiety before, but there it was.