Valentine's Day Blog - Superbowl, Inflation, Nurses, Special Staff Announcement and MORE!
Happy Valentines Day!
I hope everyone is feeling the love and are not not exhausted from last night's Super Bowl celebrations! I personally had no skin in the game since my team, the Eagles, were not in contention. And please don't hate me for being an Eagles fan!
However, the Super Bowl is such an iconic American event, and I always like to check out the commercials and half time show. Overall, I thought the Super Bowl was pretty entertaining, and the national anthem, sung by Mickey Guyton, was amazing.
If anything, I was routing for the Bengals since I tend to cheer for the underdog, though the Rams pulled it out. It's amazing the expense that corporate America spends on Super Bowl ads. Speaking of costs, week after week I am surprised by the rising costs I keep seeing at the grocery store.
Frankly, it's pretty scary to see this degree of rapid inflation. Last week in my blog I wrote about the easing of Covid restrictions and mandates in states that have been historically very strict throughout the pandemic.
I am hoping that this will positively impact the supply chain crisis that is contributing to the inflation. Another source for the inflation has been the workforce shortage. Nowhere is the shortage more dramatic than in healthcare.
My personal opinion is that the shortage of healthcare workers have been driven by several factors. Prior to the pandemic, nurses in areas like California and New York were paid significantly more than nurses in places like South Carolina, making the opportunity to take a travelling position for nurses attractive.
Then, when the pandemic hit and hospitals like MUSC furloughed nurses, those attractive positions became not only attractive, but a necessity, albeit challenging because of Covid.
On top of it, an already strained nursing pool nationally was further affected by the fact that older nurses took the opportunity to retire because of the burdens and stressors placed by Covid, combined with the fact that many younger nurses with children were forced to stay at home because of demands placed on them by online schooling and childcare closures.
Another blow to our staffing shortage came when states like South Carolina had to start using travelling nurses in large numbers because of the demands and shortages created by the above scenarios.
Travelers typically get paid more that staff nurses, which in turned has lead to bitterness and resentment amongst nurses who persevered through these tough times, resulting in yet more resignations. And with younger people amassing large sums of money in non-traditional ways, like being influencers on the internet, I fear it will be harder and harder to recruit people into the demanding but critical field of nursing,
Speaking of nurses....we have some exciting announcements about our own nursing staff! I previously wrote about Leah's graduation from nursing school. Congrats to Leah. She has been a valued member of the team while juggling work and school.
Leah will continue to be part of the practice, but on a more limited basis as she will be working as an operating room nurse at MUSC. Leah will continue to be available for services such as microblading and medical tattooing, and will be able to use her expanding skill set in other capacities as well.
In order to meet patient's needs, we are excited to bring on Kelly Gambino, who will be starting in a couple of weeks and will be working alongside Kat and Ginger.
Kelly is a nurse practitioner, who will be overseeing the Medispa as well as assisting me with my plastic surgery practice. Kelly moved approximately a year ago from the Philadelphia area, and brings with her many years of experience in both the OR and the office as a nurse practitioner.
With Kelly's advanced training, she will be able to assist me more with all types of procedures, with the goal being greater efficiency and ease of getting appointments. So welcome aboard, Kelly and I'm so grateful to have such a great team!
Since I blogged on Friday, there is nothing really new on the Covid front. The Covid case numbers are going down, though Omicron is still circulating out there. One newer development is that the way Covid data has been recorded and reported is coming under fire, raising the question as to whether the Covid hospital numbers may have been inflated.
Here is an interesting link to Newsweek article that talks about reporting by CNN's Jake Tapper and Sanjay Gupta, MD, from last week: https://www.newsweek.com/jake-tapper-cnn-cdc-rochelle-walensky-covid-gupta-1667833.
Unfortunately, as I reported earlier, numbers can easily be manipulated to support a particular narrative or argument. Elvis's , "Suspicious Minds" comes to mind...
There is a great quote often attributed to Mark Twain that seems applicable right now, "It's Easier To Fool People Than To Convince Them That They’ve Been Fooled."
Lastly, and getting back to the topic of Valentine's Day, we will be offering a flash sale (for today only) on our gift cards. Just wanted to send a little love your way!
And just as a friendly reminder, the gift card credits cannot be combined with other specials from our office, but CAN be combines with Alle (Allergan/Botox) and Galderma (Dysport) rewards programs.
I hope everyone has a great week, and don't forget that Sewe is next weekend.
As my parting thought, I'll leave you with another great Mark Twain quote: “Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile.”
Suspicous Minds
We're caught in a trap I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Why can't you see What you're doing to me When you don't believe a word I say? We can't go on together With suspicious minds (suspicious minds) And we can't build our dreams On suspicious minds So if an old friend I know Stops by to say hello Would I still see suspicion in your eyes? Here we go again Asking where I've been You can't see the tears are real, I'm crying (Yes I'm crying) We can't go on together With suspicious minds (suspicious minds) And we can't build our dreams On suspicious minds Oh, let our love survive I'll dry the tears from your eyes Let's don't let a good thing die When honey, you know I've never lied to you Mmm, yeah, yeah We're caught in a trap I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Why can't you see What you're doing to me When you don't believe a word I say? Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap? I can't walk out Because I love you too much, baby Well, don't you know I'm caught in a trap?