Nurse Resigns by Sending 'I Quit' Cake to Her Employer

kalycat, BSN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

RiskManager said:
It is the Western State you are thinking of in Steilacoom. I do some risk management consulting there from time to time. They are one of the state of Washington's secure mental health facilities, and it suffers from too high of a census, not enough money, not enough staffing and they are dancing on the edge of losing accreditation and CMS funding approval. I have a lot of empathy for the staff, providers and patients there trying to do the best they can with what they have.

I've been in mental health on multiple sides of the state. We have some issues - and they're definitely greater than what occurs at one facility. Our mental health care system is a flaming multi-car pile up.

I guess her moxie works for her.... But I'm much too into re-employability to ever do such a thing. Nursing in this state is a *very* small world; and psych is even smaller.

kalycat, BSN, RN · Jul 1, 2016

Pixie.RN said:
All the more reason! Haha, just kidding. I was always wary of baked gifts to the ER, I suppose this could also go down a bad road. ?

Yay Washington! Who knows what was in that buttercream?!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 2, 2016

Emergent said:
I did a Google search for articles about Sara Childers RN. One article said she moved from Wyoming to work at Western. Another link took me to a disciplinary letter from the state of Wyoming. Apparently she has a troubled past, including drug diversion in Wyoming. So, she is not a new nurse after all.

This is not the same Sara Childers. The one in Wyoming was born in '72 per page 26 of the board order documents you linked to, whereas the one who gave the cake to coworkers was born in '83. Same name, different individuals.

TriciaJ, RN · Jul 2, 2016

lavenderskies said:
I don't understand all the snark. If people look up the story, she did it as a joke to have a laugh with her coworkers.

So she did put in an actual resignation and the cake was just comic relief?

TriciaJ, RN · Jul 2, 2016

Emergent said:
Here's an article about the hospital. It does sound like there is a morale problem, understaffing, and a failure to protect nurses from assaults.

Their CEO, Adler, talks like he left his brain at home.

TriciaJ, RN · Jul 2, 2016

RiskManager said:
Although it occurred many years in the past, my favorite story about Western State was when they gave the head of the union there a job as the hospital risk manager to essentially buy him off from the discrimination complaints he was filing. He had no expertise, training or competence whatsoever in risk management. The state was finally able to fire him after making hundreds of thousands in settlements to other employees that he had sexually harassed and threatened.

No wonder this hospital can't keep staff.

armyicurn · Jul 2, 2016

And some of us wonder why nursing gets so much crap. Way to go Childers.

rachel100639 · Jul 2, 2016

Good for her! Why should she spend a dime on getting the cake professionally done? If more nurses did things like this, maybe administrators would get the message that they can't treat their employees like crap.

rachel100639 · Jul 2, 2016

Steilacoom? Isn't that the hideous facility that Francis Farmer was committed?

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Jul 2, 2016

I applaud the ingenuity. That is definitely a unique way to give notice. Of course I am sure the cake probably isn't the whole story, well maybe. She most likely put in a written notice on a medium that wasn't edible as well, at least she should have to maintain a paper trail. As for this making her ineligible for rehire, well if she went to this extreme to make her displeasure with her employer known I doubt if she's interested in working there again anyway. Hopefully she was smart enough to have already had another job lined up before she delivered her cake notice.

Elinor · Jul 2, 2016

I like it. She went out in style, and gave her coworkers cake to eat. Although Walmart cake? Really? I would have gone to a bakery.

But hopefully her future employers won't be social-media savvy... As fun as it probably was in the moment, it was not a smart career move.

CHESSIE · Jul 2, 2016

RiskManager said:
It is the Western State you are thinking of in Steilacoom. I do some risk management consulting there from time to time. They are one of the state of Washington's secure mental health facilities, and it suffers from too high of a census, not enough money, not enough staffing and they are dancing on the edge of losing accreditation and CMS funding approval. I have a lot of empathy for the staff, providers and patients there trying to do the best they can with what they have.

It sounds as if that place might have resembled "Snake Pit," or the facility from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

On the serious side the situation is dangerous for the overburdened staff and their unstable patients. However, was the lack of funding, for staffing, due to a facility that was an inverted pyramid, and top heavy with administration?