by Frieda Powers at BPR Business & Politics
The family of a former nurse in Ohio is blaming the nation’s healthcare system for her decision to take her own life.
Tristin Kate Smith worked in a hospital emergency room in Dayton, Ohio, as a nurse before she committed suicide in August, devastating and shocking her family and friends. But their pain was magnified when they reportedly discovered the 28-year-old had written a letter to her “abuser” – that being the U.S. healthcare system – months before she died.
The letter, titled “A Letter to My Abuser,” was published in the local Ohio paper, The Oakwood Register, earlier this month along with a message from her father.
“You’re reading this now because Tristin’s story needs to be told. We need to take action. Our nation’s healthcare system is broken, and it broke our girl,” he wrote. “Her passion for nursing has turned into a nightmare. Tristin was in trouble. Nurses are in trouble.”
Indeed, Smith’s letter drew more attention to what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported about “record levels of burnout, harassment and desire to leave the field among healthcare workers,” according to the Daily Mail…
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