Choke
it
down

June 1, 2017 -- Call something a conspiracy theory and you stack the deck. But with Big Pharma, the conspiracy is real.

To nurses, the evidence is stark. We see that our primary function often is merely the administration of "meds". This is how we manage chronic diseases, which for many of us comprise the bulk of our patients' conditions. Very little of our work is prevention. Rather, we dole out pills and drive a trillion-dollar industry.

It is also driven by a powerful lobby. Notably, Big Pharma wooed the Bush administration who gave us Medicare Part D that both bolstered pharmaceutical sales with tax dollars and outlawed discounting to the federal government, Big Pharma's biggest customer. This made a gaggle of these lobbyists rich and a profitable industry more profitable than ever.

My opinion of Trump is low but I do agree with his statement that drug prices must come down. Let's see whether he delivers.

Let's take things a step further and redesign our healthcare system to be more than a drug-selling machine. We nurses need to be more than pill-dispensing servants. Hey nurses, remember that oath we swore the day we got pinned? Our work is to benefit our patients, not to enrich an industry.

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