Daviess Community Hospital Nurse says she was fired over a Facebook post regarding pay changes. She says she made the post to warn new nurses and highlight what is happening in the hospital.
Tasha Cummings, a former nurse at Daviess Community Hospital, says she was recently fired after posting on Facebook about changes she says were made to nurses’ weekend and night-shift pay.
Cummings said she spent six years working for the hospital as a labor and delivery nurse. She said her schedule often required weekends and overnight shifts, balancing long hours with family commitments.
“Last weekend specifically, I had a kiddo playing in Indianapolis, and I had another kiddo playing in Bloomington,” Cummings said. “So I worked all night, I slept for a couple of hours, went to Bloomington… because at first I’m a mother. And then I worked again on Saturday night.”
Cummings said her post focused on what she described as a cut to differential pay for night and weekend nurses, changing from a 10% differential to a flat $2 an hour. She said that reduction would have cost her more than $10,000 a year.
“For me specifically, it was gonna be $10,370 dollars on the year,” Cummings said. “When you look at the big picture… that is a significant pay cut.”
She said less than 30 minutes after making the post, her manager asked her to remove it. Cummings said she asked whether the post violated any policy, but did not receive an answer. She said she later spoke with the hospital’s chief nursing officer, again asking if she had broken policy.
Cummings said she was then notified she was being terminated.
“When I was terminated, that is when they told me that by sharing that Facebook post, that I was discouraging people from applying to the hospital and therefore harming the hospital,” she said.
I reached out to Daviess Community Hospital for comment. The hospital’s CEO provided the following statement:
“Daviess County Hospital does not comment on individual employee matters. As an organization, we value our employees and the important work they do every day in service of our patients, their families, and our community. We are committed to maintaining a respectful workplace and to upholding professional standards that ensure the highest quality of care.”
Cummings said she made the post to warn newly graduated nurses who may be applying for jobs.
“New nurses are graduating right now, and that’s part of the reason why I wanted to make this post,” she said. “So they know what they are walking into.”