What If Doctors Were Treated Like Teachers?

Someone forwarded this to me in an email today and I thought it was interesting enough to share.


"What If We Treated Doctors The Way We Treat Teachers? A good friend and colleague who is now in Chicago first gifted me with this parable. It's been in my thoughts lately as my wife pursues her medical degree. In fact, she and I have talked about this at length, and when making comparisons between how physicians and teachers are treated, she is just as astounded. Parallels are occasionally noted between medical training and education, especially the capstone clinical experiences present in both professions. Let us pretend that physicians of all specialties were held to similar measures of accountability and enveloped with the same kinds of discourses that we see in education reform debates. What might that look like, and how would the general public, in addition to doctors, feel about that? It would not take a skilled social scientist to observe that, despite exceptional achievements in treating disease and diagnostic technologies, for example, the medical profession is failing. It has failed in its tasks to disseminate good information about health, quash misconceptions, fight corporations and health lobbies that keep people sick, and prevent high rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, particularly in low-income populations. What do we do about this? Well, I have a few proposals listed in no particular order:

a.. We must begin to hold all physicians accountable, regardless of specialization, to certain quantifiable measures of health, namely cholesterol levels, blood pressure, weight, and BMI. All patients assigned to a physician must meet specific annual minimum standards of health. Bad doctors will be those who do not meet their patients' annual minimums, and they may be subject to certain penalties if the health scores of their patients do not improve in a reasonable amount of time.

a.. It will be mandatory for the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as all of the major governing bodies in medicine, to set a goal for reaching universal health and well-being in the United States. That is, a target year will be identified in which every person will achieve the ideal values in cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI. Future targets may include assessments of mental health. A specific interval of time will also be determined to assess all patients for these values. Although pharmaceuticals may be used to stabilize or improve health outcomes, the patient must not be on any medications at the time of assessment unless approved by an official of the administrative body of the national health assessments.

a.. Quantifiable variables will be utilized to evaluate all practices and hospitals. All of this information will be made public. Additionally, medical schools will be evaluated based on the quantifiable health of patients in the care of their graduates. Medical schools will subsequently be ranked based on the health outcomes of their graduates' patients regardless of specialty. Given more advanced statistical models, these numbers could ultimately be used to assess the impact of pre-medical programs at the undergraduate level.

a.. In certain high needs areas, such as family practice, emergency medicine, or in practices in low income areas, alternative routes to being licensed will be provided. Moreover, data will determine what skills are necessary to impart in the curriculum of such programs. For instance, if a certain community prevails in specific medical conditions over others, then time will not be wasted covering rare conditions so that alternative programs can operate expeditiously.

a.. Barriers to participation will be lowered in certain instances, in the form of direct subsidies or significant tax exemptions, for the opening of small hospitals or short-term care centers by private organizations or motivated members of the community.

a.. Any hospital or practice is subject to a turnaround plan if minimum health requirements are not met. Should the facility not meet those requirements of minimum annual health, the entire staff will be terminated and reconstituted with more competent practitioners. Moreover, staff may be required to enroll in continuing medical education in advanced and remedial level re-licensing courses, including basic physics, chemistry, and biology.

a.. In addition to in- or out-of-network information and basic demographics, an online data warehouse will be established that will provide all health data and outcomes for every licensed physician in the United States, regardless of specialty. The individual physician's education, license information, and health outcomes of patients will be listed. Should in-network physicians be deemed unfit for local health care consumers, the Federal government, with matching funds by health providers, will offer subsidies for consumers to see other practitioners.

a.. Finally, a certain percentage of any and all physicians' patients will be assigned to them, care of those who qualify will be fully covered by providers. This will ensure adequate racial, income, and overall demographic diversity of clientele. The annual minimum health outcome data of these patients will also be included in the physician's overall quality.

Did I miss any? What if we indeed held doctors and other professionals to the same bloat and condescension that we currently hold teachers? I can predict some of the responses that physicians might make: "We can't control what our patients do or eat outside of our offices to maintain minimum levels of health. Also, these variables -- BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure -- are limited and don't adequately measure a healthy person. And one other thing, you can't expect us to be evaluated based on all patients equally, regardless of family history, poverty, and other complications."
As an educator, my sentiments exactly! "

2010

Happy 2010! I'm looking forward to a great year. I started counting calories again. I'm hoping to lose at least 30 pounds this year. I've been busy with work, so no time to post all my deals. I've had a little drama with the WAGS I shop at, but I've been able to get some good deals. I took a Big Lots ad to Wal-Mart to comp All the other day. I bought (6) 32 load bottles for $1 each after the $2.50 ad and a $3 off 2 coupon. I'll have to post new pictures of my stockpiles soon. Now back to writing reports for work!

It's Been a Busy Month!

Sorry I haven't been on here much the past few months. I've been very busy with teaching during the week and spending time with DBF on the weekends. The biggest news in the past month is that I finally have a new car. Well, not new to some people, but new to me. It's a 1989 Olds Eighty-Eight Royale. It may not sound like much but the previous owner had it since February 1991 and took excellent care of it. It has new paint, interior, tires and a bunch of other new things. The car is in such good condition, it looks like it's 2 instead of 20!



I'm keeping the 1985 Celebrity, but won't be driving it much. It was my dad's last car and the reason I met Vince. The car's showing her age though. The heat works great in town, but at highway speeds it doesn't warm up. Both back rims are bent. I If I lock the doors, I can't get them unlocked. You'll see the pictures showing all the rust and the yucky headliner in a second. That all sounds bad, but what really made me think about getting a different car was that last winter it wouldn't start if the temperture outside was below freezing! That is very inconvenient if you only have one car!

Wonderful Wednesday

I "wonder" why this guy has so many books in his car?? Couldn't he find any boxes to put them in?

DBF, his sister, his mom and I saw this car on the way back from a flea market near Lexington, KY. It was so odd, I had to get a picture!


In other news, my last day at Wal-Mart was the last Saturday in August. Do I miss it? About as much as I miss a root canal! I've got enough to do with teaching about 17 special needs K-5th graders five days a week. I feel overwhelmed at times, but it's getting better. There's not enough time in the day to give all of them everything they need. However, the regular classroom teachers say the same things, so it's not just me.

I finally got a TEACHING check yesterday! This was the first one in four years, so I was tickled. I haven't had any check at all since July 15th! It will be nice to have money to put back each month. Now I can actually make a budget that I can follow. I am going to start putting money back each month because I know that I'll need to replace my car in the next year or so. I also want to start putting money in a Roth IRA instead of the school's 403b. There would be no matching money and with a Roth IRA I wouldn't have to move it again if my job changed. Another positive about TEACHER pay is that I don't have to worry about not having a full check during school holidays. I had two months in the spring when I was only bringing home $800 per month. DBF told me last night that he thought he was going to have to bring me groceries during those two months. Nah, I'm a grocery hound and had shoppied sales before the short checks came. However, I thought I was going to die when I got the $230 gas bill! Thank God I had money from Wal-Mart put back for it.

One more wonderful thing for this post: Snowball turns 15 this month!!!



I don't think she looks a day over 3!

August Has Been a Busy Month!

I love my new job, but I'm exhausted! I've not been on the GC message board as much as I'd like. I'm still getting my coupons, but not hunting down the deals like I had been. I haven't even been to CVS this week! Saturday will be my last day working at Wal-Mart, so I'm looking forward to that. I still need to add up my coupon and ECB savings for the past month and a half....keeping my receipts, but too tired to add them up.

Just wanted everyone know I was still alive!

Life Just Keeps Getting Better and Better!

Remember all those great things I was so thankful for last Friday? Well, this morning I have another.....I got the job!!!!! I'm SO happy! I will start teaching Special Ed at the same school where I went to elementary school. I'm really excited about working in this building. I don't want to put any identifiying info on here, so I won't mention what's so special about the building, but if you have my email and would like to know, just drop me a line. For everybody else, let's just say that there's a lot of history there!

This afternoon I went to a nearby town where they had the Clydesdale horses. They are so beautiful!

Fantastic Friday!

This was going to be "Thankful Thursday", but I took too long getting started!

Well, it's a "Fantastic Friday" because I was so "Thankful Thursday"!

Five reasons why:

1. My interview went GREAT!! She can't tell me I have the job because the school board has to meet, but it looks pretty good. They will meet next Thursday and school starts the Tuesday afterwards.

2. Monday will mark one year of dating for DBF and I....one whole year and we've never had a harsh word or even a disagreement!

3. My family....they drive me nuts at times, but I'm thankful to have them!

4. My furbabies.....just like my family, they drive me nuts and makes messes everywhere, but they are so loving and keep my company. The picture below is Midnight asleep with his tongue sticking out! He's sweet, but not nearly as innocent as he looks in this picture.

5. Most of all, I'm thankful for my salvation. God gave His son so I didn't have to suffer through Hell. Without God, I would have none of these other things that I'm so thankful for!

What are you thankful for this week?

Good News!

Lots of good news to report! First of all, I finally paid off my student loan!!!! It took me ten years, but during that time I paid for my Master's degree out of pocket as well as paid for the two classes I took this year. It feels great to have that debt gone! I'm now officially debt free!

Second good news--I just found out last week that there is a Special Education position opening at the school where I currently work as an assistant. It's only for two years, but it would be great to by the teacher again! Please keep me in your prayers. I would practically be working in my backyard with this job. Between the pay raise and the fact that I could walk to work, I could save the gas money and use it for much needed house repairs and a newer car.

Third good new---Guess how much money I have saved with coupons and Register Rewards and Extra Care Buck...go ahead guess! $328.84!!! Now I didn't keep track of how much I spent on food, HBA, household or the furbabies. I do know that I spent about $190.00 in the past 10 days on those things. However, nearly $100 was on the furbabies for flea control ($40!), stocking up on dry cat food and canned dog food
($40) and at least $12 on cat litter. They are expensive little bundles of fur, but they are worth it.



How could you say no to that face?

I've Got a Busy Summer!

Summer school is almost over already! I've been meaning to post pictures of the classroom, but haven't had a chance. It's been a lot of fun. I've had 12 to 18 kids on most days. Last year, the most I ever had was NINE! I have the same type of theme each year, but it's amazing how different each year is because of the different students. I can't believe it's almost over. The last day will be next Thursday, July 2nd.

That very evening Vince and I will be going to his parents' farm for the weekend. I'm, as usual, looking forward to that. I didn't think I was going to be able to go since I normally work Saturdays at Wal-Mart. In April, I had asked for the 4th off and was denied. On our way home from the farm Memorial Day, DBF and I were talking about it and it hit me! The only way I could get the day off was if I wasn't available on Saturdays in July. Hmmm....I thought about it for a day or two and gave it a shot. So I changed my availabilty to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in July and hurried up and turned it in. Well, the lady in personel accidently changed it for the last half of June too. OOPS, when I saw that I was scheduled Monday and Wednesdays during the school day I told them that I was under contract to teach summer school. They were very nice about it and took me off the schedule. I'm not scheduled to work at all until July 6th! I'll lose a couple days pay because of it, but at this point, my sanity is worth more than $120! It was so nice to have a regular two day weekend this past week!

I'm taking another class so I can keep my Kentucky teacher's certifcation. It just started last week and I already feel behind! It's only a five week course. There are two books that we have to read, which means about 60 pages of DULL reading per week. Plus, review five articles, journal entries each week about our text, discussion board entries each week. It's not a hard class, just time consuming. It will be over on July 17th. Just in time for me to help with my church's Vacation Bible School the next week!

Maybe after all that is over with, I can post more on here and organize my coupons better. I was going through some the other day and realized that I let a couple great coupons expire because I didn't clip them and put them in my little accordian file. I do have two new large accordian files that I can put whole inserts in. I haven't been clipping the coupons as much since I am usually busy Sunday afternoons. I hope that I can get everything accomplished by the time the regular school year starts on August 3rd!

School's Back in Session!

In my town, school started on August 4th. I'm a Pre-K assistant for the third year and I believe this is going to be the hardest year yet. For starters, there are only two assistants instead of three. One quit in May to get a job with benefits and she's not going to be replaced. Secondly, out of the 26 students about 16 of them are new to the class. The kids that were with us last year are not strong role models so they can't show the new kids what to do. And finally, we have three boys and one little girl that are physically agressive. The boys are insubordinate as well. We can tell them to stop doing something and they'll look at us and do it anyway! The three of them together just egg each other on to do more mischief.

We've had to completely redo how we do the "centers". We can't do whole-class activities because the kids get out of control. Art, music, Spanish and PE (all of which we assistants are in charge of) are crazy and out of control because the kids just won't listen. After 3 weeks of school, we are finally able to get half of them to line up quietly.....last year that only took a week!

I think all three boys are going to be referred for behavioral problems. Hopefully, the behavior specialist can give us some strategies to help us. It's going to be a LLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG year!

It's Been A Good Week!

I've had lots of wonderful things happen in the past week.

1. I got a beautiful rose from my DBF on Friday.
2. I've seen DBF on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday! We live about 20 miles from each other so it does take some work to get together....not to mention money for gas.
3. DBF has agreed to go to church with me on Sunday. All my friends at church are dying to meet him. He's Catholic and I'm Baptist so I'm especially glad he's willing to go at least once. He's had some bad experieces with other churches----snake handling and speaking in tongues!
4. I got hired to tutor a second grade student in reading for an hour twice a week. It will mean an extra $40 a week!
5. Today I got a letter and two pictures from my nephew who's in prison. This is the first time he's contacted this (his dad's) side of the family in the year since he's been in prison.

Summer School....

Summer school ended yesterday, but I haven't had a chance before to post about it....so here goes!


I was prepared to have 15 students---10 who were 5 or 6 years old and 5 that were 3 to 4 years old. Well, the most I had at any one time was 7 students! And they were 3 to 5 years old. Therefore, I had to revamp my plans....I lowered my academic expectations and worked more on social skills and small/gross motor skills.

I still did my ocean unit, but I focused more on being able to identifying the animal or plant and not memorizing facts about it. With a small group, I was able to take them into the teachers' small office and look the animals up on the computer. By doing this, my students were about to see several pictures of each animal and even videos of walruses wrestling with each other! Those were things that I hadn't planned on showing them and couldn't have shown them as well with a large group of students.

My small class was also able to ride bikes at recess. We had one trike at school and my assistant brought her daughter's 3 bikes. So on days when we only had 3 or 4 kids they got to practice their bike-riding skills. This was very useful for two students in particular. One little boy didn't know how to pedal (he's 3 1/2 and developmentally delayed). And a 4 year old girl had trouble balancing even with a trike. They enjoyed it and improved their motor skills as well.

Another thing that we got to do with a small group was walk to the park near the Ohio River. I had permission from each student's parents to go on "walking field trips". Our little playground (used to be a parking lot) has no equipment other than 2 basketball goals and a funnel ball so going to the park was a real treat. The park has a slide, swings (even 2 for the little guys), monkey bars and teeter-totters not to mention grass to run in and a view of the river. They LOVED it! They played together better down there than anywhere else. Plus, they got to see boats and barges. We saw three barges and three boats in one day! It was a new experience to some of them.

Our local field trips included the library, the post office, the animal shelter and the fire station. I'm glad we got to go to each of them, but the animal shelter and the fire station were my favorites (and the kids' too I think).

The trip to the animal shelter was an adventure! We went to the park right after lunch because it's about 1/4 of the way to the shelter. I had a wagon so the kids could take turns riding, plus we could put our donations in it instead of carrying them. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of what we donated! Anyway the shelter was quite a walk, but we had an air conditioned building waiting for us......or so I thought. We arrive at 12:50 for our 1:00 tour...but the doors are locked and there's a sign saying they'll be back between 1:00 and 2:00! So, hoping they'd be there soon, we go back to a grassy patch behind the shelter to sit in the shade. I call the school's custodian (thank God for cell phones!) to bring us some drinks. We start rolling the ball back and for (we were going to donate it to the dogs). We get drinks and FINALLY Tiffany shows up to give us a tour! It's a no kill shelter I learn....GREAT! Tiffany shows us around. They have a kitchen, a room to bathe the animals, seperate rooms for male and female cats, the kitten room. Then we see where all the dogs are kept. It's a very nice faciility. She lets the kids pet two kittens and a puppy. The puppy was a black and white lab/golden retriever mix. Tiffany told us that he needed a name and that we could name him. The kids voted to name him "Snickers". We didn't make it back to school until 30 minutes before dismissal, but it was fun.

Yesterday for our last day, we went to the fire station. One man who works there has a son in my class. I was just as interested as the kids! I didn't know all the tools they used such as the tool to poke a hole in your roof. It was really neat! The kids got the opportunity to try to pick up a bag of the fireproof gear they wear. I could barely pick it up! I don't see how they can move with it on! The firemen let the kids spray one of the hoses. The summer school math class (1st - 5th graders) went to so I got pics of my nieces with it. Before we left each student got a plastic fire hat, a plastic bag w/ fire prevention tips and a bag of cotton candy.

We ended our summer school with a special guest----Spiderman! My preacher's son Daniel is 24 and has Down Syndrome. I'm good friends with his mom, Mary. She works for the same school district and was my assistant for part of the month. She mention the other day that Daniel has costumes of Batman, Spiderman, etc. And she said he'd dress up for the last day if that was okay with me. I said sure because the boys all love Spiderman. They had a ball! Each of them got a picture taken with him....all except the three year old...he was scared! Poor little guy loves Spiderman, but seeing him in person was too much.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how the month went. I had fun, but I'm glad for the next month off!

Ten Years Ago..............

I graduated from college with a B.S. in Elementary Education on May 16, 1998. The previous year was the worst year in my life. In the six short months between March of '97 and September '97, I lost the love of my life (he decided he couldn't be what I needed), my dog had to be put to sleep and my dad died. It was horrible! So in May 1998, not having a teaching job lined up and honestly not feeling prepared to teach, I went back to the familiar..........back home to live with my mother and back to my summer job cashiering at Wal-Mart. This was supposed to be temporary, a year tops! Well, ten years later here I am.. :( Once I found an actual teaching position nearby in 2001 (instead of being an aid or a sub), it was only considered 7/10ths. That means I went home at 1:30 instead of 2:40 and made $12,000 less because of it. So I keep the cashiering job, but I went to Saturdays only. My plan was to quit as soon as I got tenure (which means jobs security in teaching). Tenure was supposed to arrive in October 2006.....the pink slip arrived in April 2005. I was very glad I kept the cashier job because I could not find another teaching job for the next year so I worked at Wal-Mart full-time. Finally after deciding to go back to part time and sub 30 miles away where I would be paid for my Master's degree ($95 a day instead of $45), I received a call about a teaching assistant position open four blocks from my house. Needless to say, I took it. But health insurance is not provided and there's no regularity in the paychecks (no pay in summer, small checks in December and during Spring Break), so I'm still stuck at Wal-Mart!



I'm tired of working six days a week! I can't count how many things I've missed because I spend nearly every Saturday of my life at Wal-Mart. In order to get the day off, I have to put in for it at least 4 weeks in advance. I could switch with someone, but no one wants to give up a Saturday off. I'd like to have a normal weekend, but I can't stand the thought of going in to work there after 6 1/2 hours with pre-schoolers either! I tried to change my availablity to 6 am until 8 pm. I was told I had to be available 16 hours a week. Ok, I changed it back to 6 am to 10 pm. I've been there nearly 10 years and they still schedule me nights?? That is so wrong when the people that just start get 8-5 shifts! Plus, I'm starting to get carpel tunnel from constant scanning and I'm bored out of my mind......I could do this job in my sleep, and sometimes I do when I have to work until 11 pm!

At the school where I work, a teacher will be retireing in 2009. I've heard that the pre-k teacher I work for want to take her position. I'd like to have the pre-k position. With my years of experience and Master's degree, I would make twice as much teaching as I made last year working both jobs (and that includes teaching summer school and covering a maternity leave). I just don't know if I can tolerate Wal-Mart for another year. Maybe I'll start using my personal hours and schedule a Saturday off a month. I'm just pray for the day when I can walk away from there and have my Saturdays back!

Teaching Pre-K Summer School

This summer, I have the privilege once again to TEACH pre-school for four weeks. I started at this school district in August 2006 as a pre-k assistant after not being able to find another special education teaching position. Last summer, I was given the opportunity to teach four out of the six weeks of summer school. This time, however, it will only last four weeks and I'm in charge the whole time!

It was so much fun, but it's also a lot of work. There is so much preparation needed to teach and entertain twelve to sixteen 3, 4, and 5 year olds!! I am going to continue using the ocean theme I began last summer (it's much easier if you have a theme to go by!). The picture at the top is what I recently purchased to use this summer. It will be added to what I purchased for last year. At a teach supply store in a nearby town, I found most of the items at 50% off! The entire basket of supplies cost a total of $81.49 with tax. As you can see in the bottom picture, three books alone normally cost $69.97! All the books, at regular price would have been $92.95 before tax!! Not only did I find a good deal, I also will keep my receipts so that I can deduct them from my taxes next year.