John McCarron’s Sept. 15 column “Where have all of the home health nurses gone?” (Op-Ed) really hit home with me.
My mother has been a dedicated visiting nurse for the Evanston Visiting Nurse Association for the past nine years. During that time she has gone above and beyond her call of duty by working long hours and helping her patients by more than just tending to their medical needs.
Over the past year my mother has been upset by the changes that have come as a result of the new management of the VNA put in place by Evanston Hospital. The existing staff of nurses, many of whom have decades of experience in the field, have been treated with hostility and disrespect by the new managers. They have lost their pensions, weeks of long-saved sick time as well as the name of their company, which they were initially promised would not be changed. It is likely that she and many of her colleagues will be forced to find new jobs.
My mother, who has been dedicated to serving not just her company but her patients for nearly a decade, will be forced out as another greedy conglomerate is choosing the bottom line over excellence in service.
