Interesting poll on professional ethics

Random Fun
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I found it particularly interesting to see the downtrend from the 80s to present about clergy.

@Kevin_Levites, it looks like you are highly trusted! :grin:

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We live in a Dunning-Kruger society.

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The views of one nation, a somewhat twisted nation in my opinion (not that my own is resplendent at present). I’d just be more interested if the poll were global.

UK Atheist

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I think that part of the perception that many professions are less ethical has to do with consumers being better educated via the Internet.

As an example, I’d like to talk about nursing homes (now called “rehab facilities”).

When I was a paramedic over 20 years ago, I used to run calls in some nursing homes that were so awful and so disgusting that I would–as a Jew–feel profoundly guilty about putting Adolf Hitler in a few of them. I was so repulsed by some of these facilities that I secretly promised myself that I would commit suicide before ever being admitted to some of them if I ever became physically debilitated in some way.

When I was in nursing school, these were my expectations when we had to do clinical hours in a few nursing homes, and I was pleasantly surprised . . . and reconsidered my personal vows when I saw how much had changed.

There was no filth, no maggots, no rats, no roaches, the staff was professional, the residents were cared for and engaged, there was no pervasive odor of urine everywhere, and so on.

I button-holed my instructor afterwards, and asked if it was a facility for wealthy patients . . . and was told that the “cancel culture” of the Internet could put facilities out of business very quickly.

The Internet seems to have forced higher standards on such places, so the “concentration camps” for older people are starting to become a thing of the past (while there are still some truly awful places, there are much fewer of them).

My point in bringing this up is that the Internet seems to have the ability to expose unethical standards, and people are more aware and they vote with their feet.

So I don’t think that ethics have declined, but rather that it has become much more difficult to conceal unethical behavior because the Internet has made people more aware.

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This is the real problem: those who run the (for-profit, from what I can read out from the context?) facilities are not really interested in providing quality care, but are primarily interested in running nursing homes as a business to make as much money as possible. Next, they whine about being exposed when the service they provide sucks. In short, their biggest obstacle against running a profit-maximised “concentration camp”-like nursing home is the fear of being exposed on the internet and forced out of business. If that’s their level of business ethics (and ethics in general), they should not be allowed to run any businesses at all.

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I don’t disagree with you.

My only point is that there may have been no change in the ethical climate, but rather they have changed because of sanctions that hit them in the wallet.

As someone who generally views the world from a position of practicality, I see the situation now as being much better than what I saw in the past.

A particular emergency call stands out (and still gives me nightmares): We ran an emergency call on a 92 year old woman–in the end stages of Alzheimer’s Disease–who was having respiratory difficulty with a lot of secretions. When I suctioned her airway, I pulled a (very) large cockroach out of her airway . . . which “fixed” the situation.

I transported her anyway, as I felt a professional (and–I presume–a legal) obligation to remove her from neglectful and/or abusive circumstances.

I was sanctioned for this even though there are supposed legal protections for paramedics who report elder abuse . . . and things like this are a large part of why I was not promoted, as these nursing homes are a source of money for the ambulance service.

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When the covid pandemic started to get out of hand and people started dying it was older people in nursing homes that were hit the hardest. Those living in for profit facilities were hit harder still. With visitors initially banned staff suddenly found themselves without the help provided by relatives and friends of the residents.

It seemed that the owners in their never ending quest to maximize profit may have factored in the volunteer help and had sought to lower the number of staff required to care for the residents. It had become a real shit show - no pun intended. The stress on staff had the effect that people started to leave their jobs, take stress leave or call in sick. Governments had to step in, and in a few cases take over the operation of some nursing homes. Ironically things weren’t as dire in government operated facilities even though it is a well known fact that socialistic endeavors always fail.
Edited for the sake of avoiding cleaning the bathroom.

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Is it really? hmmm…

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Hang on while I dislodge my tongue from my cheek. Oh there got it. Well not really of course. I would have to be bat shit crazy conservative to think that.

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They are available here and will no doubt comment LOL.

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Oh No say it aint so. In these situations I always ask, “What would John say”. I’m in need of rest so I can be rested for the arduous task ahead. Slogging through the capitalist mire. @Old_man_shouts_at_cl thanks for the warning.

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I refer you to Poe’s law, which states that

without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.

With that in mind, please not that there are enough people around with that kind of views about “socalism”(*) that sarcasm cannot be implied without any further marking. Unless your audience knows you well enough to understand you’re joking or being sarcastic, in which case you should mark it more clearly as such anyway.

(*) which all to often is wrongly used as a synonym for stuff people dislike or don’t understand

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Yeah, I have problems with this sometimes. Generally, I don’t care, but considering the hostile, hateful, divisive vitriolic behavior promulgated by a certain segment of the population here in the United Snakes, it may come down to being an act of self-preservation to be aware of how one is perceived…
When it comes to those herein, I hold most regulars here in high enough regard to assume that they can detect the stench of my extremely rare sarcasm enough to not be confused or misled…as for the rest, fuck em’, its time they learned about the beautiful and rewarding world of sarcasm.

Edit “Sarcasm is anger’s ugly cousin”
(Jack Nicholson)

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@Get_off_my_lawn got ya and thanks for the heads up.

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