Long before Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s nurses voted in favor of a strike, care at Providence was severely under strain, not because of striking nurses but because of administrators that, instead of paying their staff fairly and invest in care, opted to gamble on Wall Street, hire consultants to come up with payment schemes, and spend millions on marketing.
All this seems a long way from Providence’s stated mission, “As expressions of God’s healing love, witnessed through the ministry of Jesus, we are steadfast in serving all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable,” which the executive leadership doesn’t seem to have read.
How else can one explain that Providence is paying its nursing staff inadequately while also overburdening them with unsustainable patient-nurse ratios. This is irresponsible, even dangerous. Patients end up waiting long hours to receive care and, sometimes, don’t get the care they need to get well. This is especially shameful since Providence has received over $500 million dollars in covid support from the federal government and, as a non-profit, does not pay taxes on its income.
For nurses, most of whom joined the profession because they care about patients, it must be incredibly stressful and frustrating to work in conditions that make taking proper care of their patients very hard, if not impossible.
It is time Providence does right by its nurses, and our community who depends on it for medical care, by getting back to its roots and start prioritizing care over profits.
Barbara Bengtsson
Everett
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