When I started my career almost a decade ago I tru...

When I started my career almost a decade ago I truly loved my work and being able to help my community. Peace Health slowly took that and when I finally walked out, I had seen Nurses willfully neglect and mock patients, shout at peers in patient care areas, I've seen staff treated with absolute disrespect by peers and by the "non-profit," I've seen dangerous and potentially lethal drug or medical treatments administered, and near losses of life because of issues like infection given to a patient by poor hand hygiene. I've seen and experienced staff have been sent to collections to have their wages garnished because the insurance provided by the hospital was inadequate for staff to go to the emergency room. I lost my own insurance when the hours required to receive them changed, and when I needed to sit in the emergency room it was with medical insurance provided by the state (thank goodness for that), for three hours without seeing a single staff member. The doctors and nurses treated me like I was drug seeking when I had a very acute medical emergency. (Just throw some pain killers at it. Treat the symptoms not the cause and I'm sure the community will be healthy.) I was an employee at the time! I can't imagine how members of the community are treated. New staff requirements are minimal so professionals who worked very hard to get where they are in their career are paid less money than those who are just coming in and are not able to share their experience. (I couldn't pay my rent by the time I left!) The individuals who are being hired to replaces those of us who have left (and one of the reasons that I ended up leaving) show absolute apathy, and seldom appear motivated to help, just to get a paycheck. If you have the ability (not always an option when an emergency occurs) go to a different hospital. If you are being mistreated, ask for a representative to help advocate because if you are someone with mental illness, addiction, a senior, (or anyone!) who may not be able to argue or stand up for yourself in a moment of crisis, it's your right and honestly essential at St. Joes to have someone help you. This place is terrible and an ombudsman is an individual from outside of the hospital that can help protect your rights and your quality of care. (I mean when sepsis, when an entirely preventable and very dangerous bacterial infection that gets into the bloodstream and MRSA infections spread between patients are hospital wide problems addressed by the CEO, then it's a sign that the hospital needs some major changes to provide the same and quality care that our community deserves!!)