An Open Letter to Striking Nurses at RWJ University Hospital…

Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ have been striking for safe staffing standards since Aug. 4. This month, the bosses terminated their health insurance coverage. Photo by Bob Hennelly

By Timothy Sheard

Dear nursing sisters and brothers,

You have to be tender and tough if you are going to stay in the nursing profession for very long. Tender, because our patients are so vulnerable. So at risk of injury and death. So afraid.

And tough, because the work is so demanding, the bosses so disrespectful, and the pain of losing a patient so deep.

We comfort our patients and their families in so many little ways that they don’t even know we have done it. I recall how, during my 43 years of hospital duty, we would glue the eyelids of our deceased patients shut with lubricating jelly so the patient would not appear to be looking at the surviving family members who came to say goodbye. And how we would sprinkle the deceased with peppermint oil to make the room more tolerable.

Little acts of kindness that no one but we nurses and aides knew about, but we did with pride.

We have to be tough to not show our emotions at our patients’ suffering. And to not react when the one in pain becomes hostile. To not take offence at an emotional outburst from a distraught family member. We show our best face, we give the anxious family our support, and we clean up the mess with a smile.

The corporate suits in their penthouse offices do not know us. They do not see how much we give, and how much we suffer in silence. When they told us to care for Covid patients with only “droplet” protections while we knew the virus was airborne, and deadly, we soldiered on, doubling up surgical masks and hoping they would suffice.

How many staff died for the bosses’ duplicity?

We worked the extra shift when someone called out and the administration didn’t want to pay an agency fee. Some nurses worked 24 hours straight rather than leave their patients uncared for.

When the money men tightened their wallets and cried poverty, you had no choice, for the CFO’s were cutting off the oxygen to our critically ill, curtailing the care our patients were crying for.

When the head office doesn’t hear the cries of our patients, it is time to open their ears and open their eyes. That is exactly what you are doing. What you must do for the sake of your patients.

May your strike soon be resolved with the benefits, staffing levels and respect that you so very much deserve.

Your “Medical Brother”, Timothy Sheard, RN (Retired).

Tim Sheard is the publisher of Hard Ball Press, an independent inprint specializing in helping working class people share their stories with the world.