[NPInfo] "British" PAs

[Shelby Havens]

Carla et al:

I wonder if part of the prevailing attitude is a gender-related issue, both 
in the US and the UK. Some (male) physicians tend to be workaholics in a way 
that many women are not. I realize that workaholic women do exist, but I 
think for the most part it's not the norm, even in 2007.

Men have the "luxury" of working long hours, because they often have a wife 
at home who takes care of all the other aspects of their lives. If a woman 
works really long hours, there's less of a tendency for her to have a "Mr. 
Mom" type fellow at home who will take care of all the home-related 
responsibilities.

I was offered an NP job at our local Hospice organization last year. They 
wanted me to make rounds from 9:00am to 6:00pm, not only in the Hospice 
house in our town (Gainesville), but also periodically in Chiefland, Lake 
City, and Palatka. All of those towns are about an hour away (in different 
directions). They wanted me to work every other weekend as well (both 
Saturday and Sunday). The (male) medical director boasted that at age 70, he 
was still working a 70 hour week! It sounded like my idea of Hell, even 
though I would have truly found the work meaningful.

At the end of my workday, I enjoy coming home, putting on jeans and a 
t-shirt, and taking my two dogs for a walk. I love to curl up on the couch 
with a glass of wine and a purring kitty on my lap. I like to go to yoga 
class and a women's writing group in the evening. I try to attend our local 
NP dinner group meetings once a month. It's important to me to have Sunday 
mornings free to attend services at the Unitarian Church. I love going to 
the movies with my boyfriend on Saturday afternoons.

Even with a 40 hour work week, I sometimes can't keep up with my dental 
appts, my pets' vet appts, keeping groceries in the house, remembering to 
buy birthday gifts for family and friends, and running errands like shoe 
repair, oil changes, etc. Some of my vacation days go to staying home 
waiting on the washing machine repairman, or getting estimates on new 
skylights for my house, because those folks don't work on Saturdays. There 
is no way I could make my home life "work" and do a little self-care if I 
worked a 70 hour week.

To make things worse, Hospice offered me a $13,000 pay cut from what I earn 
at the county jail.
Deep Sigh.

Regards,

Shelby Havens, ARNP
Gainesville, Florida









>From: Carla Anderson <carla_rayne at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: NP Info <npinfo at nurse.net>
>To: NP Info <npinfo at nurse.net>
>Subject: RE: [NPInfo] "British" PAs
>Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:59:53 -0800 (PST)
>
>I want to preface also, I am not singling out any particular maid services, 
>it is an example only, and I have NO idea what they charge. The point is, 
>that the PA/NP or any other provider of services be compensated for worth, 
>and treated with courtesy, respect, and professionalism, as should be 
>persons in other industries, regardless of what they do.  In fact I was 
>just looking at Monster.com, where they had an article on "nurses" applying 
>for jobs, and what to watch out for, and a reference was given to a book 
>about "why nurses eat their young".. anyway, they just showed a small page 
>of one part of the book, which spoke about "horizontal hostility" (which 
>can be doctor-NP/PA, or doctor-nurse, nurse-nurse), and also one definition 
>of "verbal abuse" is "communication perceived by a person to be harsh, 
>etc.."  So again, abuse is how it is perceived, individually as well as on 
>a larger scale. Carla

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