The Puyallup hospital where I work wants a new tower. Who will care for the patients? | Opinion

Last year, executives with MultiCare and Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup petitioned the Washington Department of Health to permit a new tower. It’s a great idea to serve more patients, but who’s going to take care of them?

Already, nurses are being stretched to the limit, and they’re leaving at an alarming rate. The staffing crisis is worse now than it was during COVID.

I got into nursing because of a personal experience in my own life when I was just 16. There was one nurse who was there for me when I needed it most — and, unfortunately, a nurse who only made things worse. I wanted to be the nurse who made a positive difference. Even when I have a difficult patient, I always remind myself to treat them with kindness and compassion, because this could very well be the worst day of their life — and I could be the one person making it bearable for them.

But that’s hard to do when I’m running from patient to patient without even a chance to go to the bathroom, and it breaks my heart. I have questioned many times if I got into the right field, because nursing is not what I thought it would be. I wanted to take care of people and help people, and these days I often go home feeling defeated because I wasn’t able to give my patients the care I wanted to give them — the care I was trained to give them.

I want to do more than the bare minimum.

Here’s what it comes down to: I worry about where healthcare is going and the safety of people who are really sick and in a hospital. Too many patients could mean that a nurse isn’t able to do thorough assessments, monitor patients frequently enough, or intervene in a timely manner to prevent a deteriorating state. Ask yourself, would you be OK with a family member in an emergency department hallway for three or four days, not getting the medical treatment and care they deserve?

Nurses are leaving Good Samaritan rather than put up with working conditions that have become unbearable. They are leaving and not looking back. If the hospital wants to retain them and hire enough to staff a new tower, the work of nurses needs to be bearable.

We don’t have a shortage of nurses. Really, what we’re experiencing is a shortage of nurses who are willing to work in these conditions. If the hospital wants to stop nurses from leaving, it needs to give nurses better working conditions and competitive pay.

And if the hospital wants to hire new nurses, it has to offer the same or better than a nurse could get a few miles away. Without that commitment on the part of the hospital, I don’t see how a new tower will ever be staffed.

Right now, Good Samaritan is failing to adequately staff the beds it already has.

Ashley Eubank is a registered nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup and has been there since October 2020.