We always find the most convenient examples and pick on our own healthcare system.
Are we lacking certain knowledge? Or perhaps it is the lack of critical thinking. Maybe, it is both.
If you have read the full post and perhaps agree with most of the content, step back and consider. You probably should think more in depth and not engage in ‘sloppy-thinking’.
Truth is, I had experienced similar thoughts before, and anyone who is reading this might too. Instead of widely vocalising it, I chose to speak to a few close colleagues/friends. I genuinely felt unjust, with the illusion that organisation management was not on the same page as frontlines. The only thing I have done is to rant. Similarly in this instance, a social media post was shared publicly (Screenshots are below, source is masked as it is definitely not something I want to share further). Some felt it was relatable, some tried to call-for-action by tagging our healthcare minister and Ministry of Health.
Unfortunately, this has been done in a manner when opinions are shared irresponsibly, certainly with an agenda. It was also posted on a healthcare workers’ ‘meme’ account with a decent viewership and followers that was meant for satire and entertainment. Moreover, it had been shared as an opinion of a reader of the account and masked as a ‘hard truth’ of a public healthcare worker.
Full disclosure, I am also working as a public healthcare worker and have been with the same hospital since I first started working. I had opportunities to study in various countries, experience and learn about different healthcare systems. Currently doing my self-sponsored Master’s degree in a faraway land.
So, is there a reason why non-management healthcare workers think this way?
In my opinion (not going to do a fishbone diagram to find the root cause), it could be the lack of knowledge, especially when we are constantly managed in a ‘paternalistic’ government. They have always thought of and managed citizens in the most fatherly and effective manner by already eliminating all the inefficiencies. In this example, junior healthcare workers only need to worry about establishing their knowledge in their own clinical fields, while the management will deal with manpower needs, policymakers with payment models and purchasing. As such, how many of us know the exact way our healthcare financing model works with the ‘S+3M’ model (Subsidies + MediSave, MediFund and MediShield)?
Read more here:
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/singapore
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1758-5899.12247
Having a better understanding of the 3-P model (payer, provider and patient) can also start to give a clearer picture of why hospital management prioritises discharge timing, KPIs and outcome measures. While it is another topic that requires more in-depth explaining and understanding their mechanisms, I would strongly urge clinicians to read them during their available time.
Other issues of decreasing nurses and/or other healthcare workers, inappropriate referrals are not just unique to the Singapore healthcare system. An rapidly ageing population and shortage of medical staff is currently a global issue. This is why innovation and technology are constantly deployed to help with manpower shortages — an example of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect fall risk is an example of how to managed the decreasing amount of nursing staff.
Read more: https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2019/08/how-ai-helping-predict-and-prevent-senior-falls
Other innovations are growing and requires the input of the frontliners to help generate ideas to resolve this issue.
In comparison to other developed countries, our healthcare revenue model is in a much better position considering how much percentage of total income we contribute to healthcare schemes — 4% to 10.5% based on your income in Singapore and comparing with Japan — 10% of earned income + Municipal rates between 7.3% to 15.9%.
Sources:
Japan: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259941/9789290226260-eng.pdf
Was this post shared responsibly? And was critical thinking applied?
This is where I felt most distasteful about. Background — there was an exponential growth of anonymous meme account that are based locally, perhaps due to the nature of work that healthcare workers were doing (repetitive, serious and dealing with unwanted emotions)
Memes are purely for entertainment and certainly one does not even need a bachelor’s degree to make or publish them. Much easier if you still have an intact funny bone, or 2 humerus. Geddit?
Uploading content beside memes and sharing ‘unjustified and unverifiable truth’ on an anonymous ‘meme’ account, with a decent readership rate certainly smells fishy. We all have felt the effect of social media influence in recent years and their unintended consequences (e.g Trump and his tweets). While in this instance, it is not that serious and there should be appropriate time for jokes. However, thinking deeper, do we want to start planting such seeds into the next generation of healthcare workers before they step in a hospital? The dwindling amount of citizens taking onto healthcare jobs are already stretching us thin and we rely heavily on foreign workers. Do you think publishing something like this will make our lives even easier?
In other words, think before you post/write. It may be written by an allied healthcare professional and is a proper qualified healthcare worker with at least a bachelors. Did your qualification not teach you how to apply critical thinking?
Can or should something be done?
We should start to think on how to address this call to ‘care for ourselves’. Rather than being reliant on the usual paternalistic methods — calling on Ministry of Health, Government or even Chief Allied Health Officer to shower us with love, why not do something for yourself? There is no one ideal solution, but for me, empowerment of knowledge on relevant topics have changed my way of how I think and eventually feel (and I do admit that it could also be the opportunistic long break I had away from the system that could have helped).
Fundamentally, we should not just think healthcare workers are ‘intrinsically wired to do is care’. With deep respect to many colleagues who have served tirelessly and countless years in the healthcare profession, it requires so much more empathy (but not every single healthcare worker) as compared to other professionals. At the same time, with the never-ending changes in healthcare needs and synergy with other components of healthcare (management, financing, reimbursement models), can we use some of our own intrinsic curiosity and mindset to read, seek out and understand why things are done in this manner but not another way? By having a more holistic understanding of how modern healthcare systems work (instead of compartmentalising our roles), this might be the key to learn to ‘care for ourselves’ and frame our mindset correctly, instead of waiting for incentives, benefits to drop down on us.
Lastly, if you do know who the author of that screenshot post is, I strongly urge you to tell him/her to remove such content. By all means, stick to your memes as entertainment. I will end this rant with a speech by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore founding father, who still is an inspiration to many despite him no longer around. Ponder over it, and care for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8NYaC9lB-U
The piece of article is written solely based on the author’s accumulated perspective through his existence and countless sleepless nights because he cared too much for patients. They are also not thoughts and opinions of organisations that are/were affiliated with him, nor he was threatened by someone with a gun at pointblank to write this piece. Instead, he had to write this to get the thoughts out of his head despite holidaying in Málaga, so he could focus fully on his holiday.
