The shortage of Nurses in all of our Hospitals is NOT a well kept secret.

The shortage of Latinas and Multicultural Nurses in all of our great hospitals is even worse — a fact well known to everybody outside of the discrete corridors and accounting offices of our “temples” where our health is administered.

As it is in every single segment of our society, professionals of Hispanic and Multicultural backgrounds are badly underrepresented yet needed so much, from the biggest of the Health care organizations in our region to the smallest. From Penn Medicine in University City to Esperanza Health Center in Kensington — the two in Philadelphia, the first capital of our nation, only a couple of miles apart.

One of the top healthcare CEOs in our region — a leader that presided over a healthcare company that generates over $25 Billion each year, and commands a surplus of over $2.3 Billion — called Philadelphia “the Silicon Valley of the Healthcare industry” in the country.

It is perhaps the world’s, as our technology and capital resources make us within reach of the most advanced medicine across the globe.

We export our health services to the wealthiest all over the world, and that is why the most advanced formed a consortium to “export” those services to Latin America and other continents.

Today, we want to bring up to you, dear AL DÍA reader, a sober perspective of the conditions under which nurses work, and the comparative compensation they receive compared to other medical specialties.

Truly speaking, they are the first line of battle in the preservation of life, care for the sick and infirm, and the consolation of the families and friends when the diseased become “the departed.”

They are at the beginning of life, and they are also there at the end of it — sometimes taking care of the bathing, and the difficult hygiene of the disabled.

In other words, they do the grunt work of Hippocrates’ profession, and yet, they often get the “short end of the stick,” so to speak, in the grinding work done at the hospitals of our region, the most prosperous organizations in this part of the country.

All perspectives may clash on this analysis. 

However, one thing remains certain:

#OurNurses are the first line of battle in the fight for life, good health and wellbeing.

Let’s not forget that. 

Better yet, don’t dare to mess with their sweat and long hours. 

The consequence is not that they can be fired by the CEO and/or its representatives for speaking out about it.

In the current right, TIGHT labor market, it is the other way around:

They can also fire the CEO and/or their representatives.