Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, Richmond Hill Liberal, Copyright June 13, 1990


Another column about the
wonderful birth recently of my
new son. (I am writing this
column on May 9).

A chiropractor watches people
move and bend and walk. We
are trained to assess motions in
the spine and we pick up subtle
things by observing people
move. (Sometimes it gets me
into trouble on the beach.)


I was sitting in the hospital,
for a full day with not much to
do except talk to the nurses and
tell my wife to breathe.

The nurses in obstetrics are
on their feet all day. They bend,
lift, rub, reach, run and pull all
day long. They have funny
hours, late nights, early
mornings and very unpredictable shifts.

They might have nothing to
do one moment and within a few
minutes they might have to call
in more staff because a busload
of overdue mothers just pulled
in.

They have to put up with ear-piercing screams from mothers,
dumb questions from fathers
and do-do from babies. Not fun
stuff.

These people have a hard job.
I walked the halls of York
Central Hospital and saw
several other people who have
hard jobs.

I saw six doctors who are
acquaintances of mine, two who
are also patients. I saw two
members of the cleaning staff
who are patients and two other
nurses who are patients.

Every one was working hard.
The cleaners were pushing carts
and bending and scrubbing. The
doctors were running around
doing doctor stuff. The nurses
were carrying charts and getting
prepared for surgery. The lights
and stale air were getting on my nerves. These people work here
and must be congratulated on
doing a good job under trying
conditions.

Helen and Louise
remembered us from when they
helped deliver our last child two
years ago. They were delightful,
helpful and cheerful. Margaret
helped tremendously until she
finally got to go home. Connie
did the rest and was great.

They all work hard and I
commented that these nurses
must really like people to do this
kind of work. It is a very people-oriented nursing specialty,
unlike surgical nurses who have just as important a job, but
don’t have as much patient
contact. These nurses must like
the patient contact and the
rewarding feelings, because they
could make more money and
have an easier time doing
something else. Nurses don’t go
into that field for the money,
just like doctors don’t.

When hours, stress, wear and
tear on the body and everything
else is taken into account, there
is no doubt that nurses and
doctors are underpaid. (Oh yes,
and chiropractors, too!)

The doctor who delivered our
baby was back and forth all day
from the hospital to his house to
his office. He has a difficult job:
stressful, long hours and I don’t
know if he would want me to
mention it, but he is underpaid.
OHIP, if you are listening -
obstetricians are underpaid. (So
are many other doctors, but I
will have to jump on their
bandwagon at another time.)

Veterinarians have a very
important function in our
society, and are highly skilled
and well educated. However, I
can’t rationalize the fact that
they get paid more for
performing a hysterectomy on a
bird than an obstetrician or
gynecologist gets paid for
performing the same operation
on a human.

So, to the nurses, doctors and
staff at York Central, I
congratulate you all for a job
well done. Wear running shoes,
watch your back when bending,
and try not to work so hard.