LETTER TO THE EDITOR: SRMC needs leadership to help nurses, patients

I’m a nurse at the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center. This week, I had to watch a woman cry in the waiting room. I passed her multiple times. She was always crying. She just needed to see a doctor.

To that patient, I want to make it clear:

I saw you.

I know you were in pain.

I know you needed things.

I’m sorry.

It’s not your fault, and it’s not mine.

The hospital doesn’t have beds in the back. We don’t have beds upstairs. The only open bed is in the crash room. I promise nobody wants that room.

In that moment I thought, do I really make a difference?

The wait times at UNM SRMC are 8+ hours and only getting longer.

We don’t have enough full-time permanent staff. We can’t keep the staff we have.

Management doesn’t care. The higher-ups don’t care.

We, the healthcare professionals hired to care for the well-being of our community, are drowning.

We need help.

We need resources.

We need to work less than 12+ hours at a time.

Most of all, we need leadership to come to our rescue.

But UNM SRMC President Jamie Silva-Steele refuses to meet with the United Health Professionals of New Mexico, and all the while our patients are not receiving the care they deserve.

We are on our own.

We need Jamie Silva-Steele, UNM SRMC COO Adrian Larson and UNM Health Sciences Center CEO Kate Becker to stop stalling, stop retaliating and meet us at the negotiating table. We need a contract that prioritizes our patients so we never have to watch anyone cry in the waiting room again.

Samantha Hines

Rio Rancho