HOBOKEN HOSPITAL ST MARY HOSPITAL NEW JERSEY

Marketing tactic number 1 >>>>>Change your NAME but you can't run from the FACTS

To Whom It May Concern:

Acute care is extremely unsafe, and registered nurses are frequently forced to work under extreme hostile conditions. The last day that I returned to work at St. Mary Hospital, Hoboken, NJ (aka Hoboken Hospital), I brought in my OWN antibacterial soap, since none of the soap dispensers work in the nurseries. Nurses and other personnel including families, were using baby soap rather than anti-microbial soap that infection control mandates, since perhaps they do not assume there responsibilities either. The majority of our equipment on the unit is broken, not functioning correctly on a regular basis. Obviously, failure of management to assume their responsibilities, since they are rarely present and suddenly decided to not return phone calls in regards to severe complaints while all of management is away on vacation.

Briefly in the six years I worked with the organization, I have witnessed horrific work conditions such as:

DEAD infant demise found decomposing in a supply closet room from lack of staff to get the body to the morgue

DIRTY uncapped needles and needle caps found in infant beds reported to and ignored by management

Rain pouring into the nurseries from the windows and ignored by management

***Daily cutbacks on staffing by management and administration to save on cost versus quality care***

Medication ERRORS unnoticed and/or unreported

RNs frequently carrying out non-nursing related work on top of regular daily RN tasks

Frequent PUSH OFFS to RNs in regards to management and administration’s neglect

Management seldomly works 8hour days, takes 3 hour lunches and soley communicates to staff via email only, there is no direct verbal communication

I have never seen nor have been notified in regards to staff meetings

FRAUDULENT evaluation documents were sent to the New Jersey Board of Nursing in regards to my performance at St. Mary Hospital

RNs remain OPPRESSED and treated as subordinates rather than a "healthcare delivery team"

***Severe lack of SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY not only to its employees but to its patients on a regular daily basis, those poor BABIES that can't speak for themselves!***

Seeking a regular full-time position within acute care scares me to death. The medical, administration, management and nursing neglect that I have been subjected to with physicians, and incompetent and/or unprofessional nurses has forced me to make a decision to possibly pursue a new career. I believe I have done just about every job at the hospital except scrub the toilet. Other than that, RNs run the show. We do just about everything making one salary, no breaks, and often abused by the powers that be.  What consumers watch on television is nothing close to what really goes on behind closed doors.

All future consumers should be aware what goes on behind closed doors in little hospitals like St. Mary Hospital. Better able to MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION ON WHERE THEY CHOOSE THEIR HEALTHCARE NEEDS be addressed AND WHERE THEY CHOOSE TO DELIVER THEIR NEWBORN INFANTS. Also, this is not to say that these events do not occur at larger institutions. The location of the Level 2 Nursery and nursery at St. Mary Hospital is very isolating and confining. I believe my walk-in closet in my bedroom might be bigger than one of those rooms. You could understand how unsafe and terrifying it is, to be isolated in one small room with acute patients and with NO OTHER PERSONNEL present on a regular basis. There is NO break and/or NO restroom either: so if there is no one there, basically there is NO RELIEF, not for meals and not for bathroom breaks. I would also like to inform the public that I have worked the night shift full-time 6 years ago, completely by myself on several occasions. It’s amazing that now the unit is unusually staffed with 4 night RNs regularly between regular nursery and Level 2 Nursery. I am sure this is a direct outcome of frequent short staffing complaints to their Union and the New Jersey Department of Health. However, it was justifiable for administration and management to staff the unit with ONE RN when I worked either at night, or until recently on the day shift. If I can work a unit completely alone, I do not understand how does administration 6 years later propose that I can wrongfully be accused of wrongdoing and be terminated for same. Or questioned in regards to how I do my job? If I am there BY MYSELF SAVING THEM MONEY, then that’s fine for all parties. Yet issues of short staffing by NJ State standards and Union policy are frequently ignored. When saving money on cutbacks is working in their favor then its fine, but when there is a problem I am even further abandoned by management, administration, and ultimately the union.

St. Mary to this date does not understand the severity of the conditions that the hospital (administration and management) and their physicians place themselves in on a regular day to day basis. St. Mary hospital placed itself at high liability on the date of said occurrences(previously mentioned), as well as, on a regular ongoing basis throughout my employment of six years with the organization. Medical neglect and malpractice is one of the sole reasons for the diagnosis of cerebral palsy in children. Many of these children wind up patients in pediatric long-term care facilities with lifetime physical and mental disabilities. In today’s consumer driven and legal crazed society, I strongly believe that patients have and always should have the right to appropriate medical and nursing care within our best capabilities. Studies have revealed that most medical malpractice lawsuits are indeed legitimate. Families expect high standards from a "healthcare delivery team."  The nursing profession can not allow for anything other than the best care that can be rendered. Unfortunately, "teamwork" is not St. Mary Hospital vocabulary. Yet, words like my acts, the only nurse that SHOWED UP for the job, are "shocking and egregious" when in fact I was the only one on the unit caring for the patients IS interesting! Since St. Mary Hospital left me there ALONE forced to make critical decisions, and the physician who had been notified physically in my presence 4 hours before he decided to resurface and do his job, well quite frankly I find St. Mary Hospital shocking and egregious!!!

Personally, I have been a direct target for:

Conscientious Employee Protection Act discrimination

Racial discrimination and/or reverse discrimination by administration and management;

Sexual discrimination by the physician,

Fraud and/or deception supplied to the New Jersey Board of Nursing by St Mary Hospital personnel,

Defamation of character, mental anguish and damages,

Misrepresentation and malpresentation by JNESO, breaches of Union policy, violation of New Jersey Labor Laws and;

Consequently, physical damages and harassment;

As per NJ Law, St. Mary hospital is not in accordance with legal standards in regards to staffing in ICU 3:1 and NICU 2:1.

As per NJ Law, nurse patient ratios are to be posted and public knowledge; St. Mary Hospital does not post such requirements.

As per NJ Law and Union policy, St. Mary Hospital placed their patients and the hospital at risk for liability ON A REGULAR BASIS as this is common practice within the organization.

I had a personal experience upon admission to a Same Day Stay/OR as a patient. In the five hours I spent at ANOTHER HOSPITAL I was touched and cared for by 10 DIFFERENT RNs, not including nursing assistants. How does St. Mary Hospital justify INFANTS coming from the OR/DR (delivery room) are safely attended to when staffing on a regular day is 1 RN to whatever the course of the day may bring? I have more to share if there is an interest. 

Information provided by former RN with SMH