Nurses here.. - RPN Hamilton Health Sciences Employee Review

I work here. I used to love my job. The CEO and any upper management literally do not care about frontline staff. You can work tirelessly each day, non-stop for the 12 hour tours, taking care of the sick and powerless who need you, be their advocate and then be ripped apart if you get burned out or sick... You only get 5 sick days a year.——When frontline staff work with infectious and contaminated environments and the extremely ill? Not appropriate at all. Those who stand up for their own rights (like when a patient assaults them), or those who speak out, are belittled, or the issue is degraded to insignificance. I go home with bruises daily. The supplies we are provided to give care to the patients gets cheaper each month—sometimes supplies are non existent at smaller sites, so they have to improvise... No one listens to the front line staff. Even nurses are kept out of safety huddles and patient discussions with the interdisciplinary team (when we spend all of our time with them) because it’s scheduled at a time that is inappropriate for us. There was a fire at one of the smaller hospitals that is, and it was handled amazingly and professionally by the staff. Not a single patient was hurt—staff were though, they ended up on modified duties or off work for the strength they had that day—but occupational health “encouraged” them back to their full work duties at an expedited pace.. There were also no call-outs to bring outside staff in to assist (as per protocol), there was no guiding manager or administrator (since it was a weekend, and that “small site” doesn’t receive enough funding to even have a manager, facility maintenance, or even clerks on weekends). The one on call was literally clueless about the site. Everyone was exposed to asbestos smoke and debris since there were no maintenance employees on site to shut the vents off to the units and patients rooms; there were no available (vital) medications near the areas that patients were moved to (but thankfully the palliative doctor and nurses risked themselves and brought some down); and the nurses from each floor jumped in to still provide care to patients in need when the south side of the building was still smoking and ablaze. AND while this was happening, a code orange was called at other hospitals, but never declared or mentioned to staff evolved. More credit should be given to the staff of that hospital. It was an unorganized disaster, with NO leadership, handled beautifully by the staff. They deserve more credit. OH, and there was no mention of the cause of the fire? Just that they want to give up on the entire building. And move all programs somewhere else. If you work here, just recognize you are just a number to them... it’s the same anywhere, but the talents of the nurses and allied staff are lost and unacknowledged. Most young staff leave promptly due to this. But when you’ve been working somewhere for a decade or two, it’s hard to leave such an amazing team, who feel just like me—even when it’s heartbreaking and there’s no respect or appreciation given from anyone above.