Social Justice

As a Social Worker, I believe in fighting for social justice. It’s, like, in the NASW Code of Ethics that all Social Workers live by. For real. Social Justice. It’s a thing.

It has come, however disturbingly, to my attention, that there are some severe social injustices within the very hospital in which I work. This fact was brought to my attention as I was walking down the hall this morning, passing the Doctor’s Lounge, when a doctor exited, struggling to balance his donut, his coffee, and his bottled water, with his clipboard, all in two hands. He walked in front of me, green scrubs spotless, as he walked, in all his confident struggle, to wherever he was going.

And I realized, then, that life was TERRIBLY unjust.

Did you know that a donut costs $1.50 at the hospital? Did you know that the DOCTORS have a lounge packed FULL of the things, which they can eat at only the cost of their calories?  The Doctors’ Lounge is locked to anyone but doctors, cleaning crews, and food services staff. And trust me. All the doctors just go in there to hang out. There are couches, rugs, big screen TVs, DONUTS, coffees, bottled waters, potato chips, DONUTS, and all of these things laid out like sacrificial offerings to the Doctors of the lounge. They have become gods in our eyes.

This is unjust. The windowless office in the ER that the crisis workers and myself live in is no larger than 7 X 12 feet. There are two of us, now, and soon they’re adding ANOTHER worker to our office. Three of us crammed at our work stations, unable to see the daylight, struggling to get lunch, some days, before 3:00.

And we get yelled at by doctors. That’s the fun part. They act all entitled in front of us, think they know everything there is to know. Heaven forbid that you should ever have to disagree with them, or correct them on their insensitivity to patients. (No, it’s not alright to call all of your patients “douchebags.”) If you do that, you have proven yourself to be an ignorant fool in their eyes, and they will treat you accordingly.

So they went through more university. And they think this gives them POWER over us?

Now, they’re not all bad. That’s important to say, and I must admit, our ER docs are much nicer than the floor docs. ER doctors stay in the ER, wading through the same blood, guts, and gore as the rest of the nurses and staff. They are a part of us. A couple of them will even brave coming to set foot in our office to talk to the crisis workers. Sometimes they say thank you, and look grateful. And yet, even they are in a different league than we are.

I’m not just talking about salary. I’m not just talking about their scarcity, and the fact that nobody will ever fire them. They know it, in their own hearts, that they are better than us – and it irks me to my core.

What about Social Justice? When will we all finally be equal, and how will I, as a Social Worker, insure that Justice is served???

When do we ALL get free donuts????