US Betrays Healthcare Workers in Coronavirus Disaster
I actually have a proposal to help with the issue of doctors getting taken out of action by infection.<p>We need to train corpsman. Now. Specifically in the essential skills is to handle the average duties involved with COVID-19 hospitalization and care. Make sure they have enough skill to generally handle things, and if possible, prefer training&#x2F;drafting in those who have already developed immunity.<p>I understand it isn&#x27;t a trivial feat by a long shot; but right now medical expertise is to specialized in the sense that &quot;general care&quot; is beyond the reach of even a modestly trained individual; making the loss of one fully trained and licensed medical practitioner being lost devastating.<p>I&#x27;d propose the following:<p>A) Expedited training programs for conducting hospital intake, data entry, basic vitals taking, basic equipment checking&#x2F;operations, and familiarity with COVID specific complications, and an escalation process.<p>B) Medical apprenticeship programs minus the 8 years of pre-schooling. We can get back to that once things have settled down enough. Hours spent count toward eventual medical training&#x2F;licensure...somehow...<p>C) Same apprenticeship system should exist for ventilator operators<p>D) Expedited training in I industrial manufacturing aimed toward a medical device manufacturing specialization.<p>E) Insurance companies get to pound sand. Someone has to pay for it all sadly, if we&#x27;re staying true to form; not necessarily saying we should.<p>F) Doctors&#x2F;nurses&#x2F;LPN&#x27;s get assigned a squad of these gophers to manage patients, only popping in to handle abnormalities&#x2F;specific complications.<p>G) Practicing doctor&#x27;s are highly encouraged to train and guide anyone willing to at least provide some help.<p>Short of something like that, and I think we may start to see a pinch where as things peak, medical professionals start dropping like flies or burning through donated antibody laden serum transplants to cope with the absurd viral loads they&#x27;re being forced to endure by necessity.<p>If we can figure out a way to dilute that by spreading out repeated exposure between different people (again, preferably those who have recovered), I think the system will stand a much better chance of coping. Furthermore, it decentralizes the very basics of medical care, builds&#x2F;reinforces community bonds, gives everyone a potential way to help out once they&#x27;ve recovered, and will likely increase the quality of medical care for everyone by decreasing the severity of overwork our artificially constrained supply of fully trained medical personnel causes.<p>Short of doing something like that, I don&#x27;t see any way to avoid losing a hell of a lot of skilled, hard-working, and invaluable people during this time of crisis. Hell, if I knew I&#x27;d already had the stuff and developed immunity, I&#x27;d volunteer. Throw in some modest compensation, and I bet you&#x27;d get even more. Or better yet, enstate a program of cost of care deferral by putting in hours after recovery. It&#x27;s not the most easy thing to get off the ground, but it&#x27;s better than nothing.