Care without compassion

Care without compassion

EDITOR:

I am writing to expose the lack of compassion, humanity, and quality of care our loved ones receive at some of the local nursing homes and health care facilities. I have been an L.P.N. for 15 years and have changed jobs more frequently in the last two years, as have many of my coworkers, in search of quality care our friends and loved ones deserve.

Has our healthcare system become more like an assembly line than a healthcare facility devoted to giving its patients even the smallest amount of love or compassion? I have been interviewed and even hired for positions to which I have been asked to care for as many as 66 elderly residents in an 8-hour shift. Other than giving them their medications, would I have had any time to devote to their needs or wants? I realize facilities hire nursing assistants, but how far can these people be stretched to insure quality care and safety to our loved ones?

The state says as nurses we should be advocates for our patients, but who speaks for those who cannot? Who ensures that our loved ones are receiving what they’re paying for, regardless of method of payment?

Families admit their loved ones to such facilities entrusting staff to provide safe quality care and yes even a small bit of compassion; but who has time with the ratio of patients to nurses and other staff. I have worked for both profit and nonprofit organizations and the bottom line still stems from making the “all mighty dollar.”

Like many, I too had a loved one in a facility. She was unable to speak and each time during my visit she was found either soaking in urine, dirty with feces, or both. I would change her, give her good mouth care, wash her face, and, yes, even hold her hand. I realized at that point, a few years ago that nursing staff no longer had the time for one of the most important aspect of someone’s life, the need for compassion. And what about the patients who are in facilities and have no loved ones in their lives? Many die because of the lack of quality care. Just like a newborn baby has the need to be touched and held to bond to their mother, the elderly need human contact to thrive.

Facilities complain that they are unable to hire and keep good and dependable staff members. Treat them with compassion and pay them what they’re worth. Shame on the facilities that are laughing all the way to the bank.

TAMMY LAUER

McDonald

Deregulation: another word for higher electricity bills

EDITOR:

Some months ago I saw an article indicating that Jon A. Husted, speaker of the Ohio House, favored the deregulation of the electric industry in Ohio and a market based setting of prices. I wrote Mr. Husted a letter stating my objections to deregulation and the need to continue with electric supply as a regulated monopoly.

I pointed out to Husted that we can only have marketplace competition if there is someone to offer another choice. In the current situation this is not possible. No one is building new power plants that might offer an alternative to First Energy or AEP. We saw the cancellation of a new generation facility to be built in Columbiana County. Additionally, the current transmission lines are running at near capacity, which means that it is not possible to bring power in from any great distance outside Ohio. Under the regulated system the public utilities commission determined the need for new generating capacity and allowed the utilities a rate increase to cover the cost of the construction and a fair return on their investment.

What I got back from Mr. Husted was a letter with typical political “double speak.” In one paragraph he advocated government regulation; in the next, he strongly supported a marketplace.

Needless to say the electric utilities favor a deregulated market place because a fair return is not what they want. Given the lack of any real competition, First Energy and AEP will be free to gouge the market for whatever it will bear over the years it would take to get new generating plants and transmission lines in place. Remember the contrived shortages in California a few years ago and the outrageous rates that were charged? If memory serves correctly, the announcement of hearings on Ohio Edison’s rate increase request indicated they were asking for something like a 30 to 40 percent rate jump. In a free market situation, they won’t have to ask, they will just present you with a bill.

I was on Duquesne Light Co.’s Speaker’s Team, most often addressing nuclear power. But in the early ’90s when the issue of deregulation first came to the news I would be asked questions on that subject. My response was, “If you don’t like things with electric supply as a regulated monopoly, just wait until it becomes fully deregulated.”

If you want to be able to afford your electric bill in the near future, I urge you to write as many members of the Ohio Assembly as possible. The party that now controls both chambers of the Assembly must be made aware that there will be a political price to be paid if they decide to turn our electric supply over to “free market” competition when no such free market competition exists or will in the near future. The proponents of de-regulation will tell you that the promise of higher profits will bring competitors into the market place. I don’t care to wait for that to happen or pay the electric bill until it does.

RAYMOND L. MOSER

Columbiana

Another view of city schools

EDITOR:

As a graduate of Youngstown city schools and as a teacher at East High, I deeply resent the comments expressed in a letter last Sunday concerning the cuts made by our board of education. The superintendent, her staff, and board members are very well aware of the issues of discipline and curriculum in our schools. They visit the buildings periodically to observe the accomplishments and achievements of our students and teachers.

Surveillance cameras are used in the buildings as a safeguard for the students, not as a determination of what actions should be administered towards the disciplining of the students.

Our curriculum for grades 6 through 12 has recently been rewritten and aligned to the Ohio Academic Content Standards and are not “as antique as a Model T Ford.” The course offerings available for middle and high school students meet the standards set by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the Ohio Department of Education. General and applied (basic) courses have been eliminated, and students take more rigorous courses of algebra, pre-calculus, chemistry and advanced placement courses.

Attention is not given to just college-bound students, but to all students because we believe that all children can learn. In the Youngstown city schools, failure is not an option.

TRACI CAIN-TIGGS

Youngstown