Who Needs Nurses, Care Aides, or Health Care Workers Anyways?

Another announcement of the masterful administration of Gordon Campbell and the funky bunch in Victoria - all sorts of cuts to funding and administrative efforts aimed to help people get educated and work in frontline service positions in growth fields - residential care aides, health care work, nursing etc. Cuts to funds to support people with disabilities in accessing education, because, you know, they just have it too damn easy as it is, why have our government help them break down the brick walls to employment and education.

I guess it's short-term pain... oh, wait, it will be long-term pain too. Who the hell do these idiots think will be caring for the "grey tsunami" of aging Boomers and other generations that are being unleashed upon us all in the near and far future? Guess we all better start gearing up to become our parents and grandparents nurses and care aides, because there is already going to be a shortage of people lining up to clean up shit, puke and the indignity of age and illness. Wonder why operating rooms can't work to full capacity, they can't find enough nurses, but apparently we don't need to support educating and training more of them.

I'm needing to ask at this point, is anyone actually driving this ship? Have they been sampling our World Cup Weed, or taking a little dram at the wheel? Oops, I guess the latter was true, at least some time back. But he's not really behind this wheel, it's the shadows behind him we need to be worried about.

This is going to be a excruciatingly long and agonizing race to the Bottom and I'm not looking forward to it one damn bit.

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Nursing, Health Care Students Forced to Pay Up After Province Slashes Budget
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun. July 22, 2009.

Excerpt:

Nursing, health care and home-support-worker programs are among those affected by the cuts, which were approved in June.

Students who can’t afford to repay their student debt, or who are unable to work because of a permanent disability, will no longer be eligible to have their loans forgiven.

Margaret Dhillon of the BC Nurses Union called funding cuts to the Nurses Education Bursary “shortsighted and “counter-intuitive.”

“I don’t know why they would even consider cutting that in a profession that is in such an acute shortage,” Dhillon said.

As well, the province will end a pilot program, worth $4.7 million, that gave loan-reduction assistance to students filling high-demand occupations, including residential care aides and home support workers.

Disabled students were also hit. Those who were previously eligible for loan forgiveness because of a permanent disability will now be required to apply for extended interest relief on their debt. The disabled benefits program, which aided about 350 students per year in B.C., was scheduled to end July 31, and will not be renewed.