this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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[–] drekly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My friend has recently joined the NHS as a doctor's assistant for clinics in a hospital. No training, shit pay: if not minimum wage, very close to it.

Hearing him talk about the job, it sounds like they're essentially making him do the work of a nurse without the pesky pay and training of hiring a nurse.

[–] tal@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There may be an argument that if training isn't necessary for a given job, maybe it shouldn't be a requirement to do the job.

I recall listening to a podcast a few years back talking about how RNs (registered nurses) here in the US were taking over some portion of work that had been previously only permitted to be done by doctors, because it really didn't require a doctor's training. That reduces costs, and isn't a problem, as long as the training that an RN has is sufficient to do the job.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

2021 median registered nurse pay: $77,600 per year

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physicians-and-surgeons.htm

2021 median physician/surgeon pay: This wage is equal to or greater than $208,000 per year

If you're requiring the latter to do work that the former can do perfectly well, you're imposing a lot of unnecessary expense on the medical system, basically limiting yourself to a workforce doing those tasks that is a third the size.

The thing I'd look for to see whether too-low training mandates are a problem is whether one had unacceptably high rates of error and whether, upon investigation, those were traced back to limited training.

[–] drekly@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean, the private US system is very different, and the pay is wildly different haha. He's on closer to £18,525 ($23,459.90). It looks like the average nurse with 5 years experience, is in the £36,500 range. ($46,223.40).

For context, the average house in my (very rural) area is £350,477