Why does the pressure never let up, and the pay never catch up?

You are asked to be fast. You are asked to be exact. You face patients who are scared or angry, and pay that does not match any of it. This is true. Say it plainly, without flattering yourself or the system. But look closer. You have made yourself responsible for the whole encounter — the speed, the accuracy, the patient's mood, the outcome. No one assigned you all of that. You took it on, because it felt like the only way through the shift. What you can control is smaller. But it is real. You can choose how you divide the load. You can choose what you tell yourself when someone is angry at you. You can choose whether you carry this alone, or let someone else take part of the weight. Start there.