Patients first
To the editor:
I am glad to hear The Aroostook Medical Center is dedicated to continuing safe and quality care, as they are proud to announce, but let us as a community understand how TAMC receives the “A” safety ratings they are able to promote.
TAMC is rewarded with these safety ratings because of ancillary staff members and RNs who give overwhelming efforts to provide outstanding, nationally recognized patient care.
It is the nurses and ancillary staff members who are working in high-acuity areas, short-staffed, often coming in early, working late through lunches, breaks and well past shift ending time to make sure safe patient care is delivered. But this also creates staff burnouts, injuries and illnesses that occur because of unsafe overtime. Currently in my department we have 15 unfilled shifts posted — 15!
TAMC nurses have always placed our patients first and will continue to do so, even as we strike. We thank the community for their support and understanding. Nurses of TAMC want to continue to uphold TAMC’s safety ratings, but we must take action as we are no longer able to maintain the inappropriate levels of staffing, tasks and duties required of us.
As TAMC employees, we are asking for support from our community so TAMC management may understand our commitment is not to better ourselves economically but to ask for reasonable staffing, recruitment and benefits for our proven dedicated staff nurses.
Chelsea Holmes, RN
Presque Isle
