Jeff Sanders, President of MMC, Formerly Worked in Several Health Care Systems in Utah. That is a Culture Best Known for Its Regressive Attitude Toward Women as Dictated by the Dominant Mormon Church. See Post herein Dated March 16, 2021 For More.
Maine Medical Center (“MMC”) registered nurses participated in a noontime rally calling for safe staffing levels and demanding that nurses receive the best protections at work. Don’t get your hopes up though. It’s highly unlikely that officials at MMC will listen to their input with its current leadership in place. The nationwide event was organized by the National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union of registered nurses.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the US is not experiencing a “nursing shortage” – only a shortage of nurses willing to risk their licenses or the safety of their patients by working under the unsafe conditions imposed on them by profit-driven employers. According to nurses, employers are also seeking to make the crisis standards of care and crisis staffing levels the “new normal,” a major threat to patients across the country according to the NNU.
“Everyone will need medical care at some point in their lives and when our loved ones are in the hospital, we want nurses to be able to deliver the focused care that patients desere,” said NNU President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN. “But employers have prioritized profits over sick patient care. They have cut corners on safe stafing since long before COVID and with the pandemic still in full swing, they are driving desperately needed nurses awaya from the profession. On January 13, we are standing up to say,”Enough.” to employer greed and to demand safe staffing now.”
RNs say nurses would stop leaving the profession if hospitals immediately improved working conditions by increasing staffing levels and followed nurses’ advice to grow the pool of available nurses.
In January of 2021, RNs at MMC began a legal process to unionize. MMC officials responded with memos to them warning of a shift in patient care among other challenges should they unionize. Staff was also warned of “important considerations if a union is formed…providers can expect an abrupt culture shift from collaborative to adversarial.”
Jeff Sanders, president of MMC, previously worked for two health care systems in Utah. Utah is known for its beautiful Watsch mountains, skiing at Alta and elsewhere and of course the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Life is perfect in Utah. Oh? Not so fast with that idyllic picture stuff! Utah is also known for its regressive attitude toward women that permeates all aspects of life there. An attitude dictated by the leaders of the Mormon Church – the Latter Day Saints. Women’s place is at home, having babies and taking care of them. Women are certainly not to be in decision making roles. They are to be dictated to – that is the Mormon Way. Women are to echo the opinions of their husbands and suppress their own views. Unmaried women with no children are considered misfits and held in low regard. How many women leaders of the Mormon Church have you seen? Please visit post herein dated March 16, 2021 for more information on that.
Please visit posts herein dated February 3, 2021 and April 30, 2021 for more background information on the tension between the RNs at MMC and Administrators.