Why aren't there more RT blogs?

Your Question: Why aren't there more RT blogs like yours.

My Answer: There are a few, as you can see by the "Links" tab above. However, many of those blogs have not been updated in so long that I might as well delete them from my list. This is unfortunate, but I think fear has a lot to do with it. In fact, I know of one blogger who was told to quit blogging or he would lose his job. He had the best RT blog ever. Okay? And now he's done because he didn't want to lose his job.

I don't know if you have ever noticed this or not, but sometimes I publish posts on this blog and then think better of it and hit the delete button.  I don't do this very often, but sometimes I have to act as editor and protect the real me from the writer me. I have a tendency to be non-politically correct and truthful, and, Lord knows, the truth can get you into trouble sometimes.

Of course, you might be thinking, "What about freedom of speech?" I think that freedom of speech gets overblown sometimes. There really is no such thing as freedom of speech in the respiratory therapy cave. I can't observe a certain situation at work and then write about it, and then publish it. I mean, I could if I tread carefully. I could if I stayed on the safe side of the line. But that line is invisible, so it's often hard to tell where exactly it is. So, it's better to play it safe and simply avoid these types of articles.

Which is unfortunate, I think. I think the world would be better served if people like me could be honest about what they see at their work. So many times I see something interesting. Something that worked good. Something that didn't go so good. Something that was rare. Something that happens a lot, and shouldn't. So many things I see that have to remain in my head, only to be forgotten to time.

HIPPA I think is good in a way. I think people should have some medical privacy if they want it. But I think the whole HIPPA thing also has been overblown and taken out of context to the extent that people have lost their jobs for no good reason because of it. And I also think it has been a disservice to the medical profession as a whole. So many times, for example, we package up a trauma and ship that person out, and then we never hear a peep about that patient again. What did we do right? What did we do wrong? What could have we done better? We will never know, because of that dumb law.

Actually, we shouldn't blame the law, per se. We should blame the sue happy people who ruined the healthcare system. I think the HIPPA law was the result of lawmakers saying, "We have to do something." Yet I always think that -- the way the founding fathers used to think, I believe -- is that government should leave making laws to the states and to the people, and it's best to do nothing than to do something stupid. And I think HIPPA was that something stupid that resulted from people thinking they just had to do something.

So, it is probably because of this law that you don't see more blogs like this. And it's also why you won't see an article written by me that is too overly honest about my job. That is why I almost have to take a humorous take on much of what is wrong with our job -- and there are a few things wrong, I'm sure you will agree. It's a great profession, but it's imperfect, and it's not our fault it's imperfect. But I think that laws prohibiting bloggers -- or at least scaring them away -- from telling on the job stories work to the detriment to the profession as a whole.

Thoughts?