I’m proud of the nurse Brandon King has become. Like nurse Alex Wubbels of recent news stories, he puts his patients first. Most nurses and nursing assistants do.
This means that the nurse is always available first and foremost for the patient, the result of which is that most nurses don’t have time to take a lunch break or, if they do, are interrupted constantly by patient demands. Therefore, since the nurse is always working, what right does any hospital have to dock 30 minutes pay for a lunch that doesn’t happen?
King complained about the injustice of this on behalf of all nurses and lost his job in pursuit of a change in this policy. Doctors at Intermountain Medical Center are given free breakfast and free lunch in a private dining room off the public cafeteria. But IHC wants to take away 30 minutes pay for a lunch most nurses don’t have the time to take and then they discipline an individual who disagrees with it and tries to do something about it?
The cost of health care is a burden for everyone, hospitals included, but why would you alienate your most precious resource to save a few bucks? And what will you dock pay for next? Bathroom breaks?
Lynn Parker
Cottonwood Heights