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Bitterroot Services's avatar

As a retired Health Care Practitioner, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, who has held Advanced Registered Nurse-Anesthetist License in Washington State for a period of some 6 years, including the last 4 years prior to retirement, I am not surprised at the pressures and unfairness Dr. Miller experienced in Washington. ( A Blue State).

I also held a Washington Bar Card as an Attorney in Washington for those last 4 years as well as Advanced Registered Nurse-Anesthetist License in several other States and a Bar Card in a Red State as well. I retired from both professions, thankfully, prior to the Covid debacle.

There is a saying; "Truth Hurts". That said, there are many beautiful people in Washington State and many locations that surpass the scenery in other States. However, there is an "idiocy" that resembles nothing i have ever experienced in my working career, which covers a stint in the U.S. Army, and either health care positions in 8 different states and Attorney positions in 2 States over a period of some 52 total years. In each profession I have worked in both red and blue States.

However there was/is a hubris present in Washington State that defies all reason and sanity when it comes to healthcare and the almost iron clad control that State has exhibited over Independently Licensed Health Care providers such as Physicians, Advanced Care Nurses and Physician Assistants.

The Washington State Medical Board, Washington State Board of Pharmacy and to a lesser extent the Washington State Board of Nursing have controlled the respective professions with an iron hand and a completely unreasonable dictate of practice rules so very eloquently described in this article by Dr. Miller who is a true physician who puts his Oath of Care for Patients ahead of monetary goals and has been shown to have the Ethics woefully lacking in the aforementioned Washington State Boards of Practice governing Health Care Providers.

More than one Washington Provider has come to me during Covid and asked for advice as to what to do. To all, I have advised that, if possible, they obtain professional license in another State now and be ready to exercise their options to move their practice site out of Washington while they could still get good references from within Washington.

The caliber of a person is shown by the choices they make when there are severe pressures placed upon them that directly affect their ability to do honest work, support their family and know they are true to their inmost feelings that trump those severe external pressures.

Sadly, I can tell you, honestly, that the vast majority of Health Care Professionals I know in Washington violated their Oath to do a patient no harm and committed actions only showing a coward like response in the face of pressures exerted on them by their Practice Boards during Covid.

The true hero's are few and far between in the Covid era.

Dr. Miller, my hat is off to you and I applaud you for being true to your Oath and for placing suffering humanity ahead of financial gain. You are, in my humble opinion, a real MAN as well as an Excellent Physician among thousands of mere petulant children who claim to be Physicians or Health Care Providers but their actions show them to be otherwise, slaves to an uncaring, pompous board of Practice.

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Fre'd Bennett, MAHA's avatar

My wife is an RN with 24 years of experience - everything from Geriatric Psych to post operative recovery, to terminal child oncology, and much more. We lived in Seattle and Snohomish County during this same period of time (we left the West Coast and our beloved Emerald City for exactly the same Stalinist treatment that Dr. Miller describes.)

If anything, Dr. Miller's testimony here slightly underplays the Stalinist hospital / healthcare system we experienced on a daily basis.

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