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Brockton Nurses' Strike
Letter of Support
Let me begin by giving my complete and total support to the Brockton
Hospital Nursing staff who have chosen to go after what is important
not only to them but to the community as a whole.
I too am a local RN who has not worked in the last three years
due to many of the reasons you are currently striking. I went to
nursing school solely because I wanted care for people. At 40 years
old I am totally burnt out and I have only been an RN for 11 years.
Let me tell you, what we do out there is certainly not what I wanted
my nursing career to be. Between the politics, countless hours
of paper work that has increased over the years, the decreasing
amount of actual patient care, the increase in nurse/patient ratio
and trying to be the best nurse that one went to school to become,
nursing has drastically changed. I have had as many as 14 patients
on the night shift and been in charge at the same time (regardless
of what administration thinks most patients do not sleep at night).
I have worked the evening shift and had as many as 10 patients.
I have been in charge of a full nursing unit on days and had to
carry a patient assignment at the same time. Is this what nursing
should be, absolutely not!! Yet one is expected to get all nursing
care and paper work done by the end of the shift, it is truly impossible
to do so and be a good nurse.
It is amazing to me that one would expect someone to work mandatory
overtime and be able to provide quality care. Hey, why not, is
the administrator or management the ones who will lose their license
in lieu of serious medication or other errors etc., NO!!! I have
worked under mandatory overtime before and it cannot be done safely.
You as well as I know how many and what kind of errors are just
waiting on our doorstops with these kinds of working conditions.
Not only can it not be done safely, but to have the right to refuse
due to exhaustion or illness only is not acceptable. We as nurses
do have lives outside of our jobs. What about the nurse's families;
the husband or wife who has to get to work, the children who need
their mom or dad to get them ready for school or need them to be
home after school, what about the driving home when you have not
slept for hours. Will the hospital take the blame if something
happens to your child because you are not able to be home or if
should you fall asleep at the wheel, I think not!!! There are so
many other countless reasons that mandatory overtime should not
be allowed in any facility. To have more specific wording in your
contract regarding mandatory overtime limits is a must. You know
that without it the hospital will not stick to their end of the
bargain. They never do.
In respect to pay, under these conditions there is no amount of
pay that I would find acceptable. Staffing has been a long time
issue in many many hospitals over the years thus requiring all
of this overtime. There is never enough staff, I wonder if there
ever will be. With administrators who get the raises they do, the
fancy cars, bonuses etc. how can a hospital afford to hire new
nurses or even give their nurses incentives for staying on board
under such circumstances. What about all the money spent on ridiculous
surveys from outside sources who are flown in to conduct these
surveys or studies? Come on Mr. Goodman, why don't you use your
raise to hire more nurses and give up your car and drive a Toyota
like many of us do? I say this to all hospital administrators not
just you. Would you want us to care for you or your ill family
member after working several hours in addition to our regular shift?
Doesn't it scare you to think that a detrimental, or god forbid,
even fatal error could affect you or your family member by having
an exhausted nurse care for you? Well it sure as hell scares me.
Look at all the money that is being spent to get replacement staff
while your dedicated nurses strike for something they believe will
make their nursing care even better. Use this money to hire more
staff in order to decrease overtime. Staffing coincides with census.
Sure you may feel that you are adequately staffed but does one
really take into consideration the level of care some of these
folks require? Do you realize that any one person can take a turn
for the worse at any given moment tying up more than one nurse
for hours.
To me it is obvious that the nurses are doing this in the long
run for the safety of their patients. And it is really sad that
administration thinks that this is all about a ploy for more pay
or about the MNA trying to look good after what they have just
gone through. YOU ARE SO VERY WRONG!!! Have you ever taken care
of an ill patient?? Maybe you should give it a shot one day, maybe
you would respect nurses more.
To all of you nurses, I wish you the best and hope that you will
set an example for other nurses and health care facilities.
To you Mr. Goodman and other hospital administrators, a good hospital
is a safe hospital. A safe hospital is more than adequately staffed
with nurses who are not exhausted and burnt out. I hope this gives
you something to think about.
C.A.W., RN
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