I wrote this blog today not as a bureaucrat, but as a nurse — a battle-worn frontline grunt who’s seen firsthand how the system bleeds itself dry, one tiny budget cut at a time.
I was hit with a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice tied to my position as nurse in public health. I challenged it, because guess what? The loop numbers don’t lie: recent updates from the Texas DSHS show funding cuts were less severe than anticipated — a 5% reduction, not the catastrophic gutting we feared.
Translation? My position is still fundable and programmatically viable.
So why the hell am I still waiting for reconsideration?
Why are they acting like this decision has no room for review?
Why does it feel like local public health administration is just randomly picking who they like and don’t like when it’s time to swing the axe?
⚠️ No Rhyme. No Reason. No Leadership.
Let’s call it what it is: a leadership failure.
There’s no clear framework when it comes to local public health workforce reductions — just a mess of “we’ll cut here, maybe there, oh wait, I don’t like that guy, so let’s RIF him.”
Meanwhile, the patients don’t stop.
Walk-ins, scheduled visits, referrals — they just keep coming.
The sick don’t pause to match the budget cuts. They don’t check the city’s financial reports before showing up gasping for breath.
So yeah, the budget shrinks.
The workforce thins.
But the sick only get sicker.
💀 Saint Dirty Face Says:
“Our country’s healthcare system is a joke. America’s fat greed machine needs everyone sick — because there’s no money in the cure.”
That’s the core truth nobody wants to say out loud. We pretend public health is this noble cause, yet when the funding roulette spins, frontline workers become expendable. There’s no roadmap. No long-term strategy. No backbone in leadership.
📊 Why This Isn’t Just My Problem
I’m not just fighting for a job — I’m fighting for:
Five years of service vesting that determines my retirement future. Program stability in a community where TB still kills, despite what people think. The basic principle that when the money exists, you don’t cut the muscle holding the body upright.
If public health was run like a business, the ones keeping the lights on — the clinicians, nurses, program leads — would be protected, not targeted. But in this system, logic doesn’t live here.
🔥 The Bigger Picture
We need to stop pretending that trimming public health budgets is some tidy, behind-the-scenes administrative task. Every cut echoes through:
Longer wait times. Sicker patients. Burned-out staff. Communities abandoned by a system that was supposed to protect them.
You can’t reduce the workforce and expect the workload to shrink.
You can’t praise nurses as heroes, then yank their livelihoods without rhyme or reason.
✊ Saint Dirty Face Manifesto
“Public health survives not on grants or glory, but on the backs of people who stay — even when the system tries to cut them loose.”
🛑 Closing Shot
We don’t need more hollow praise. We need leaders who:
Understand the numbers. Respect the workforce. Stop playing Hunger Games with people’s livelihoods.
Until then?
Saint Dirty Face will keep calling it like it is.
Saint Dirty Face 