Another perspective on the hospital

As a fellow employee and team member of Healdsburg District Hospital, I was saddened by the article that I read in The Healdsburg Tribune (Nurses protest lack of pay parity, April 2, 2015) in regards to the comments quoted by some of our employees.
I would like to clarify first, that I am not on the management team and I am not a nurse, however in my position with this wonderful hospital, my duties place me in many of the departments throughout Healdsburg District Hospital.
I found the twist on this article to not be a true picture of who we really are as a whole, that would include all employees, and not just a single department primarily on a single unit. We knew when signing on as employees in these past few years that there would be many changes in the near future, some in making difficult decisions in order to keep us healthy, strong and financially viable within our community.
The morale, hospital wide, is not any different than any other workplace in our community. We are a team, we do support one another, our patients most certainly are the priority for every single one of us here, there is laughter and happiness in our hallways, we receive letters monthly from patients telling us how amazing we are.
The upper level management supports us completely, from encouraging staff potlucks that draw over 150 employees almost monthly, we have recognition awards on a monthly basis, we have regular employee forums that are hospital wide that allow us to speak our minds without reprisal, to our upper level management team who have a definite open door policy with us – the list goes on and on and on.
Every hospital in every state has their issues, think of the strikes thrown, think of the walk outs, in working over 30 years in the medical field, the dynamics may be a little different but the complaints and spin are generally the same no matter where you go.
I, for one, am a proud “team” member of this hospital and know that we as a team – from upper level management down to the basic employee – are doing our best to help our community trust and believe in every effort we make.
If you do seek medical attention, we are the place to be, because we provide excellent patient care, we treat our patients as we would our own families, we care about one another from top level to bottom level and we are a happy, thriving hospital that has beat the odds.
Our board made the right decision to bring in outside consultants to assist us in becoming financially viable once again and it obviously has been successful because our paychecks definitely clear each and every pay period.
To my community, I have lived here my entire life, am a proud member of Sonoma County and know that I could not have picked a better hospital to have become a team member of. Each and every one of us has an opinion and I felt it was important to add mine to the mix.
 
Cynthia Conners, Activity Coordinator
Healdsburg District Hospital