I am writing this letter in support of the Providence Centralia Hospital nurses and all health care workers in the community.
I have worked as a nurse in many roles over the years, both union, non-union, bedside and administrative duties. I currently work as an advanced practice nurse practitioner, which expands my scope of practice to include diagnostic and prescriptive authority.
I sought out to further my education because I was frustrated with the system, and I hope to be in a position to help facilitate some change for the better. I chose to become a nurse knowing that it would be difficult at times, that I would be expected to provide care for others in both the best and worst of conditions, whether it be natural disasters, pandemics or ordinary times of ill-health.
Bedside nursing is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding even during the best of times, and over the years nurses have been tasked with doing more with less. Less support staff, less resources, and less support from administration. Nurses are suffering from burnout at an accelerated rate, and many are leaving the profession altogether due to the unsafe staffing ratios, vaccine mandates and disassociated administrators.
Nurses are being faced with situations where they are having to take on more patients, which compromises the safety of their patients as well as creating a significant risk to their license and livelihood in the event of a medical error. Hospital administrators allege that nurses are very well compensated and should simply give more. Nurses working their regularly scheduled shifts in a typical 36-hour work week are often not making six figures, as Darin Goss of Providence Centralia suggests.
I know this because when I was working as a nurse, even working a full-time job and two part-time jobs, I fell short of $100,000 annually. Health care administrators are making a six-figure base salary, often with bonuses upwards of $100,000 in financial compensation. This information is available to the public and can be viewed by going to the Washington State Department of Health website. They are the ones being compensated very generously for the work that front line workers are doing.
This is not sustainable, and I respectfully ask our community and our state and local leaders to stand behind our community’s nurses and health care workers.
Teresa Ekdahl-Johnson
Mossyrock
