Sledge, I apologize to you personally. In no way do I intend or wish to demean the work you do, and I am tremendously grateful to you for choosing to make healing your life's work. It is, indeed, a thankless job (much like my own in education) in many respects. I am increasingly alarmed at how few people are willing to go into health care, especially nursing, anymore. I don't presume to speak for you, but I can't help but wonder if one of the reasons why there are so many fewer people willing to go into the field, is because the only practitioners who get any respect in the field of medicine are the doctors and researchers.

In fact, the whole disconnect for me after many years of having too much contact with the medical establishment for a healthy, functional person with little tolerance for those suffering from chronic self-pity (I know a lot of nurses too!), is the disconnect in the US between healing art and medical practice.