Not sure how I missed this story considering that I used to work at this hospital.

D.C. hospital fires 11 nurses, 5 staffers for snowstorm absences

The Washington Hospital Center, which I believe is the largest facility in the area, fired several nurses because they were unable to show up at work during one of the worst–if not the worst–snowstorms in the city’s history. Strange how most of the nurses that were canned have seniority and have been there a while. What a nice way of getting rid of the best paid people and those that might come around begging for a pension sooner rather than later.

In a letter sent to the staff on Friday, hospital President Harry J. Rider sought to quell rumors that hundreds of people had been fired. He said he expects fewer than 20 people will be dismissed.

“Sadly, we did experience some issue with associates who did not show the same commitment as most of their co-workers to the community, our patients and their fellow associates. They are the few who turned away from their scheduled shifts and who tried — and are still trying — to turn the focus on themselves rather than the thousands of Washington Hospital Center workers who fulfilled their commitment to their patients and colleagues, and made it to work,” he wrote.

I wonder if Henry and his other peons managed to make it into work during the snowstorm, and show their “commitment” to the hospital. Did management make it in?

If they hospital was really committed to its staff and patients, they would have made an effort to help nurses get into work. Send out army humvees if need be, but get the nurses to work. Or offer to pay them to come in ahead of the snowstorm, and give them a place to stay. It works both ways, Henry. Nurses are committed to their jobs, but they are not about to kill themselves trying to make it to work, or abandon their children (I guess that Henry never thought of that either–that schools and daycare were closed, so what should nurses do with their kids–not that he’d think to offer daycare at the hospital’s expense).

On one forum, some nurses were saying that their hospitals expected them to come in ahead of time if a storm or something was anticipated. They didn’t get paid for their time, and they could stay in an empty patient room, or stay in a hotel at their own expense. And baah baah baah, most nurses just follow like sheep.

Well I hope all of these fired nurses suit the crap out of the WHC, and in another article, it says that the nurses have voted to become part of a larger union. Yay!