This commentary is by Julia Emery, of Winooski.
[A]s someone who has spent about six months of her life as an inpatient at the University of Vermont Medical Center, I have great respect and admiration for the nursing staff. Over the last four years, I’ve had five major surgeries, and for long periods of time my family and I have more or less lived at the hospital. The nurses have been a lifeline – a caring and competent presence during the most physically and emotionally difficult times in life, and I could spend hours waxing poetic about so many of them. To be transparent, I support the nurses 100 percent — but this isn’t about them.
On July 12 around 8 a.m., I had the unique experience of being one of the first patients to undergo surgery at UVMMC during the nurses’ strike. Just the day before, I found out I would need urgent surgery and was admitted to the hospital. My surgeon wanted to do the surgery ASAP but was cognizant of the tumultuous situation, and so I didn’t know for sure that I would be having surgery that day until they wheeled me down to pre-op an hour before I went under.
UVMMC President and CEO Eileen Whalen had promised patients and families that the hospital would provide high-quality, safe and seamless care to patients during the two-day strike. This wasn’t completely true. The replacement nurses were, for the most part, nice and eager to help, but their lack of experience within the UVM system was overly apparent. They didn’t know where things were or what the process was for tasks such as pain management, wound care, and other incredibly important post-operative care. At one point during the first night, my new ostomy was leaking, and no nurse knew how to change it or where they could find the supplies to do so.
I would say I received adequate care, but only because of the dedication of LNAs who worked around the clock to make up for the shortcomings of the replacement nurses, and the nurses who did not strike in order to manage the chaos that radiated on the floor. But for most of the two-day strike, I was scared – not only because of the surgery and all that comes with it, but because I was in the hands of well-meaning nurses who couldn’t possibly be as helpful or effective as the nursing staff at UVM. My experience during the strike and after was night and day, and the care I received during the last 12 days of my hospital stay was unparalleled in compassion and competency.
It saddens me that no deal has been reached between UVMMC and the nursing staff, and it scares me knowing that myself and any other patients could be in an unsafe environment again in the future. After my experience on July 12, I don’t have much faith in Eileen Whalen and the management team at UVM, but I know that the doctors, nurses, LNAs, and support staff care so much about their patients, and will continue to provide the best care possible within the limited confines that the hospital has unfortunately imposed on them. If President Whalen is as committed to quality care as she claims, she can prove it by meeting the nurses’ demands – adequate staffing and a competitive wage commensurate to Burlington’s standard of living to attract the industry’s best talent. The nurses ask nothing more than to provide the best care possible to UVMMC’s patients, and our neighbors and loved ones deserve nothing less.
