The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe • Hacker News Board

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#121

Post by magicalhippo » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 6:15 AM UTC

nradov wrote: post #94

an0malous wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for doctors, we constrain the number of new doctors trained every year to keep their salaries high. Just like constraining the housing supply to keep housing prices high, greed has corrupted these systems from getting better and now we’re just asking people to die instead.

Which country are you talking about, and who is "we"? In the USA, Congress constrains the number of new doctors trained every year not to keep salaries high but rather to limit Medicare expenses. If Medicare beneficiaries can't get an appointment due to a doctor shortage then no claim will be submitted to CMS. Most of the funding for residency programs comes from Medicare, and every year there are medical students wh…

At least here in Norway, the doctor associations fights hard against any talk about reducing the ridiculously long shifts that nets the doctors large paychecks.

They'd much rather have 1-2 doctors do the work of 3-4, so they can cash in.

Though there is a change of guard happening. Younger people, including doctors, value work-life balance much more and are less inclined to work long hours for more cash.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#122

Post by 28304283409234 » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 8:39 AM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #7

thmsths wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not surprised. Healthcare costs have been rising faster than inflation for several years. It's a difficult sell to increase budgets, so we have to resort to these "invisible" cost cutting measures to try and stay afloat.

This will continue to happen as long as automation in health care is slower than in other sectors. It's due to Baumol's Cost Disease: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect The same is true for other sectors that struggle with automation like education.

Which part of a nurses shifts would you automate?

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#123

Post by nsksl » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 8:45 AM UTC

laurencerowe wrote: post #117

nsksl wrote: post #69

Nurses in Spain make 2500-3000 euro a month, in a country where the most common salary is 1250 euro. Are they overworked? Well then they can take a pay cut so we can hire more of them.

Eurostat average full time salary 2022 for Spain is €31k. 2021 average nurse salary €38k. While mean is not median the stats seem to show much less of a difference than your figures. For comparison in the US median full time wage is $66k while median nurses wages is $86k. Nursing is a skilled occupation requiring a bachelors degree. Seems good they get paid around average wages for graduates. https://ec.europa.eu/eur…

Averages as well as you say are useless. You know this, so I don’t know why you bring averages up. I specifically mentioned the most common salary, not the average or the mean, which are completely skewed.

You should also research the salaries of other people who also have a “bachelor’s degree” as you call it. That is, if they get employment and don’t have to emigrate.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#124

Post by spicyusername » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 9:06 AM UTC

nsksl wrote: post #69

Nurses in Spain make 2500-3000 euro a month, in a country where the most common salary is 1250 euro. Are they overworked? Well then they can take a pay cut so we can hire more of them.

    They can take a pay cut

Why is it always a race to the bottom...?

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#125

Post by nicoburns » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 11:44 AM UTC

b3ing wrote: post #118

asdfj999 wrote: post #54

If I could change one thing about healthcare, it would be how we handle end of life care. Sadly, hospitals are full of 80-90+ year old people who cannot walk or talk for years, advanced dementia plus many other serious comorbidities, with severe malnutrition and recurrent aspiration pneumonia, with large non-healing sacral ulcers, who shit and piss themselves, and the family continues to insist we "do everything" to…

Until you have to make that decision it’s easy to judge. Even if you think you are doing the right thing for someone that can’t speak for themselves, the guilt can stick with you.

People really need to consider the alternative though. I've seen a lot of old people who were desperate to depart this world but whose younger relatives wouldn't let them.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#126

Post by nicoburns » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 11:46 AM UTC

trhway wrote: post #84

n8henrie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience it is rarely the patient making this choice. Much more often the children, who are often making a big show of how much more they love mom or dad compared to the other sibs.

And the patient made that choice by establishing that family dynamics and by not having specific instructions even while seeing over decades the family dynamics they created themselves. I'd say that is an explicit clear choice. And anyway it isn't outsider's business to tell a family how to care for their own.

> And the patient made that choice by establishing that family dynamics and by not having specific instructions even while seeing over decades the family dynamics they created themselves.

Most people who are old today (or in the last few decades) probably wouldn't have thought about it because it wasn't something that affected their parents who likely didn't live that long in the first place.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#127

Post by mensetmanusman » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 12:19 PM UTC

We are now 5 workers supporting 1 retiree, this drops to 2 when we retire. The effect on nurse overload will be nonlinear.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#128

Post by sjw987 » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 12:21 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #68

"Nurses should be at the very top of our social hierarchy but we live in a world where it’s just the opposite," she says. "This film is a love letter to the profession." I moved furniture for 3 years in the early 2000s to support my shareware business. Something like 500 moves, sometimes 9+ hours per day, occasionally 6 days per week. It made me who I am today, but also broke me in countless ways. I witnessed single…

> I see a world divided into two camps: one that does much for little, and one that does little for much

I just wanted to say, I really admire this succinct and well written point. And agree with your post in general.

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#129

Post by mensetmanusman » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 12:27 PM UTC

zackmorris wrote: post #68

"Nurses should be at the very top of our social hierarchy but we live in a world where it’s just the opposite," she says. "This film is a love letter to the profession." I moved furniture for 3 years in the early 2000s to support my shareware business. Something like 500 moves, sometimes 9+ hours per day, occasionally 6 days per week. It made me who I am today, but also broke me in countless ways. I witnessed single…

Thank you

Re: The hit film about overworked nurses that's causing alarm across Europe

#130

Post by zeagle » Wed, Jul 30, 2025, 12:37 PM UTC

betaby wrote: post #21

retrac wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rising faster than inflation for several years Over here in Canada healthcare spending has been rising faster than general inflation more or less continuously since the 1960s. Seems to be generally true of many wealthy countries. More tech and therapies. And an ageing population. And probably other factors. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Health_care_cost_r...

Salaries probably pay factor as well? Check the sunshine list, plenty of radiologists making 600k/year. That's literally 10x of the median salary.

This cherrypicks a high billing specialty, doesn't appreciate an overhead of 25-40% for most physicians, and also overestimates the proportion of physician salaries in healthcare budgets (~15%). You could literally pay physicians half and not save that much.

Also is that too high? I know a guy in his early 40s still finishing his 2nd radiology fellowship (4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, 5 years radiology, 1-2 years each fellowship = cost of his 20s/30s) to get a job...

I find HN comments on healthcare compensation when it comes up funny because on the other hand compensation expectations in the tech gold mine here are justified. E.g. I take home less in CDN dollars than an L3 SE at google without benefits. I'm happy with what I do/get but there is a mismatch in rationalizing high compensation, markedly more years of university and training, and from my point providing a societal benefit.