ST. LOUIS — There’s a nursing shortage across the country, and a local nurse is concerned that the problem is getting worse due to a change in the way one health care system pays its employees.
For nurses across the country, the pandemic has put things into perspective.
“It’s a lot of death,” said SSM nurse Bridget O’Hearne. “It’s really hard seeing young people even that have gone through this. It’s been an eye-opening experience.”
O’Hearne said coupling COVID with the ongoing nurse shortage has many health care workers clocking a lot of hours.
“There hasn’t been one week that there hasn’t been something put out on Facebook, or calls put out, that we need help,” O’Hearne said. “They’re offering bonuses, they’re offering everything that they can, but at some point, we’re all getting burnt out.”
So when SSM switched its pay calculation system, O’Hearne said she instantly felt it in her pocketbook.
“All of us are losing money through overtime or we’re losing it through not getting the pay during that week,” said O’Hearne.
The subtle change moved the end of the pay period back seven hours, meaning it ends in the middle of the overnight shift.
“This doesn’t really affect day shift,” said O’Hearne. “It doesn’t affect our office workers. It just affects nightshift.”
An SSM spokesperson provided this statement in response:
“SSM Health deeply values all our caregivers and is committed to providing strong, competitive salary and benefits. This includes annual increases, market adjustments and hero bonuses that recognize our team members’ hard work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – as well as robust programs and resources to support their overall health and wellbeing. As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we recently made some changes to further standardize our pay practices and ensure a consistent employee experience across our health ministry. Even with the change, employees continue to be paid appropriately for all hours worked including hours paid at the overtime rate.”
“By doing this you’re pushing people out the door,” said O’Hearne. “It’s sad, quite honestly.”
O’Hearne said she has already had coworkers walk out over this issue, so she’s going to keep pushing the issue until management makes a change.
“I want to say to the administration at SSM that you’re losing employees,” said O’Hearne. “You’re losing the people that are the core of your hospital, and the care of the patients, and it’s going to affect patient care.”
Send story ideas
This story idea came from a 5 On Your Side viewer. They emailed 5 On Your Side and you can too! Do you have a story idea you'd like to submit? Just email 5OnYourSide@ksdk.com or text us at 314-425-5355.