A Tragic Outcome of Nursing vs Health Care System

Not only does Sandy Summers of The Truth About Nursing give us salient and timely nursing updates but provides resources to make changes in situations that impede nursing practice. In this case, poor hospital nurse-patient ratios. Did a toxic hospital environment contribute to a staff nurse’s suicide? What can we do to make changes that support hospital nurses in the future?

Read the latest post from The Truth About Nursing by Sandy Summers.

News on nursing in the media nurses getting the respect they need to save lives? November 20, 2023

Letter to My Abuser

Ohio nurse’s letter highlights desperate workplace conditions November 6, 2023 – Today USA Today had a long article about Ohio nurse Tristin Kate Smith, who wrote a powerful “Letter to my abuser” – describing poor staffing, security, and support at her hospital – a few months before she died by suicide in August 2023. She described a healthcare system that had “taken [her] heart and slowly crushed the goodness it had.” Her father, Ron Smith, later sent her letter to their local newspaper, The Oakwood Register. The USA Today article described how the story has gone viral among health workers at a time when many struggle with similar conditions. It includes data from a recent survey of healthcare workers that found that 80% of respondents reported feeling burned out, 70% expressed distress about staffing ratios, and 50% felt their institutions had betrayed them. The USA Today article discusses steps that can be taken to improve these poor conditions, as well as resources available to help nurses who face them every day in the clinical setting. We thank journalist Sarah Al-Arshani and USA Today for this helpful piece. In his letter to the Oakwood Register, Tristin’s father Ron Smith says: “We need to take action. Our nation’s healthcare system is broken, and it broke our girl. Her passion for nursing had turned into a nightmare. Tristin was in trouble. Nurses are in trouble. Female nurses commit suicide at more than twice the rate of females in the general population. We must do better. Call or email your Congress people. Tell them we can do better.”  See our full analysis here and/or heed Ron Smith’s call to action and go straight to advocating with our two-part plan. 1) Take our survey 2) Sign our Petition!Tell Congress to pass minimum nurse staffing ratios by sending a text to 50409 and put SIGN PVCHLVin the message! It will send a letter to Congress which you can read here. Thank you!