Tristin Kate Smith, a 28-year-old Ohio nurse, wrote a scathing letter to her “abuser” five months ahead of her August 2023 suicide.

Tristin Kate Smith, a 28-year-old Ohio nurse, wrote a scathing letter to her “abuser” five months ahead of her August 2023 suicide.

    • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
      133·
      1 year ago

      Here it is:

      Ever since I was young. I expressed interest in healthcare and becoming a nurse, so I began my study I gave my heart, my body, and my mind to you My long days and hours dedicated and giving you my all. There were times that working in the emergency room were extremely difficult, but also extremely rewarding. I have cried with my patients, with their families, and for them. They have even been there for me, and emotionally supported me during my hard times. The hands of all the patients and families that I have held, hold mine with me everyday of my nursing career encouraging me and showing me why I do what I do. I thought that would be all I needed to be able to care for them, and I know I had told you I would be with you to the end.

      Told you I would be there through the good and the bad but you have taken my heart and slowly crushed the goodness it had.

      You love bombed me with affection, because I knew I was going into something that matters. You made me feel comfortable, despite the rumors of your abusive past that I didn’t want to believe. The compliments, pizzas, and thank you letters began to slowly have less meaning. The staff I had to help began to go away. They were unnecessary, in your eyes but so necessary for the patients and nurses to provide what you advertise as “quality care”. When I thought it couldn’t get worse you proved me very wrong when you started gaslighting and manipulating us.

      You go around asking my colleagues and I what we need to help patients and improve satisfaction scores but when we tell you the truth you instead send us online courses saying we need to smile more and be friendlier. I remember the first time I heard about nurses getting hit and how you asked them what they did to get hurt or didn’t do to prevent someone else from hurting them. Remember, you cant try to protect yourself by fighting back just lay there with your hands over your head during the minutes it takes for security to come. You started blaming us for things out of our control. Started criminally charging my colleagues, for things that were from what you are doing. As you know, the law doesn’t care for the Swiss Cheese Model." I no longer feel like you care about me or the people you say you serve. I sit at my front desk just waiting for someone to come in and shoot my patients and I, just because of your lack of care for our protection You haven’t even given us metal detectors or proper security to promptly keep us safe. You are only using and exploiting us to line your pocket with the common citizen’s money for overcharged healthcare You don’t care about anyone because you have a narcissistic personality.

      If you say you cared, why don’t you listen while we beg on our hands and knees. You say that we do so much and that we put up with so much When we think we are finally going to get the love and support we deserve, we only walk in to get free pizza and pens for the “healthcare heroes”. Truth is you only care about your personal greed.

      I want so desperately to continue to help people, but I cannot stay in this abusive relationship. You have asked me to do more with less every day, beating me to the point that my body and mind feel like they are black, bruised, and bleeding out. I’m only sorry to my colleagues and patients, you deserve so much better.

      But my abusive partner is relentless, and if I stay, I will only lose my sanity and possibly my life forever.

      • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
        382·
        1 year ago

        I’m in the medical field. Capitalism and quality healthcare are incompatible. Any capitalist country with good healthcare only has good healthcare because they keep capitalism out of it. It gets immediately worse when capitalism is reintroduced to the field. Look at the UK and Canada for reference. Not to mention, her suicide note explicitly says profit is the reason that her and her co-workers are suffering. Educate yourself on the issues or shut the fuck up

        • PolarisFx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          19·
          1 year ago

          Our politicians are pushing hard for an American system in Canada, the provincial Conservative (Republican) governments are underfunding healthcare so they can turn around and say “See!? This is why we need a two tier system.” it’s bullshit.

      • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
        211·
        1 year ago

        What else would you call it? She literally says that they put her in this terrible situation with no help so that they could squeeze a few extra dollars in profit. So, yeah… that’s her point.

        “You are only using and exploiting us to line your pocket with the common citizen’s money for overcharged healthcare. You don’t care about anyone because you have a narcissistic personality.”

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
          129·
          1 year ago

          You do realize that capitalism isn’t the only economic system that works people to the bone right? She’s calling out the people who run the hospital. How you came to the conclusion that her suicide was an anti-capitalist cry is beyond me.

          • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            1 year ago

            Did you not read the quote? She didn’t work under another system. She worked for a private healthcare provider and explicitly called out their profit motive. Don’t be ignorant.

          • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
            9·
            1 year ago

            Every corporate run health care institution is like this. Every corporate institution in America is like this. Time to get your head out of your ass.

        • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
          181·
          1 year ago

          What tone should I have used other than the deceased’s own?

          “You are only using and exploiting us to line your pocket with the common citizen’s money for overcharged healthcare. You don’t care about anyone because you have a narcissistic personality.”

          • SeedyOne@lemm.ee
            19·
            1 year ago

            OP edited post with letter terrible article was lacking and tonal change, but hey keep pitchforking

            Perhaps one that isnt so dismissive of the entire situation. Or at least doesn’t package it in such a way as to make it easy to sweep under the rug.

            You may not see it that way but many will, never reading this far. Be an ally, not a hindrance.

              • SeedyOne@lemm.ee
                13·
                1 year ago

                I’m not entirely sure at this point. Maybe caught between edits?

                OP posts article lacking crucial letter FP correctly calls it out FP finds letter, adds it with contradictory/dismissive tldr FP called out but edit wording fixed ME yelling at cloud US all getting dumber having read this far

                • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  1 year ago

                  My comment was neither contradictory nor dismissive. Her letter is an indictment of capitalism, specifically in the healthcare sector. If you can’t read a short letter and process it or keep track of what you’re actually discussing, maybe you should stop arguing with people.

            • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              I didn’t edit my post. I put the letter in my original comment 5 minutes after posting so what OP did is irrelevant. The letter has been there for anyone to read since I posted my original comment.

              No one is making anything easy to sweep under the rug. The root cause of her complaint, in her own words, is that the system that takes advantage for her for a profit is the one that led to her death.

              You don’t have to be dishonest. Read what she said in her own words.

          • SeedyOne@lemm.ee
            24·
            1 year ago

            No, I actually agree with it in general. It’s that there is so much more going on and comments like that encourage people to gloss over details or skip the article entirely.

            I’m as upset as anyone about our late stage capitalism but damn, I’d hoped it’d be longer before the Lemmy was overrun with cynics trying to sum everything up into a neat little package.

    • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
      36·
      1 year ago

      I dare say that anyone working in healthcare knows a coworker who’s committed suicide because of the job. I know I do and it still haunts me even though I managed to get out.

      • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
        34·
        1 year ago

        2 suicides, 5 COVID deaths, 2 of car accidents from sleep deprivation after getting off. Not to mention the miles long list of those suffering from mental illness, burn out, drug abuse, severe stress, and injuries from work

        • boeman@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          It pains me to read that you went through this. I really hope you can find something that keeps you happy so you can make it through the losses.

      • BOMBS@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Luckily, I don’t know of anyone for certain, though I know of some medical providers that openly shared their suicidality. It was A LOT of providers, way more than most would expect. They looked like defeated remnants of previously joyful people with aspirations and hope. Many of them said that they continued to work just to pay off their loans and help their kids avoid the situation they were in.

        When I quit, I left the medical system entirely. For unrelated matters, I happen to learn a lot about the patterns that abusers use on their victims, and I saw a lot of overlap with that and how the medical system I worked in treated the employees, especially the use of fear, obligation, and guilt (ie FOG). I’m convinced that healthcare managers/administrators are soulless robots without empathy that find positions of power in medical settings because they can manipulate the system, especially the providers’ innate desire to care for patients and the patients’ desperate medical situation and lack of knowledge. It really is troubling.

  • quindraco@lemm.ee
    244·
    1 year ago

    It is very nearly against the rules to post links from this site (it’s on the non-preferred list) because it is so awful. Please do better source-finding.

  • Feirdro@lemmy.world
    171·
    1 year ago

    This is being published in FOX and NY Post, the antechamber to the right wing echosphere. Does this mean the right wing is turning against the healthcare industry?

    Not saying the industry isn’t evil, but it’s also keeping a lot of people alive.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      24·
      1 year ago

      No, the right isn’t posting her anti capitalist letter about how she was abused by her employer through overwork and lack of support for the nurses.

      Right wing news is covering this because they know their audience doesn’t dig into stories. They cover outrage and the things that make people mad with the understanding that the right wing media doesn’t want follow up actions or questions. Just anger.

      If you’re mad, you’re probably watching right wing media. If you’re sad, that’s the left.

      Righties don’t like being sad because they lack the emotional fluency to deal with sadness. Can’t punch a loved one because we’re sad. Anger though, is depression with energy and will fuel people to action. Most don’t know what do to so they turn back to the media that angered them to know what to do, which is how we got Jan 6.