Nurses Rally for Safe Staffing to Save Lives
The streets of downtown Vancouver echoed with the lively chants of hundreds of nurses that came together to call attention to the province’s desperate nurse staffing crisis.
The nurses were gathered for the BC Nurses’ Union annual convention and took time from their meeting to march to Jack Poole Plaza and rally for improved working conditions and better care for patients across the province.
“Safe staffing saves lives!” was the message heard by all.
“Every single day, in health-care settings around the province, nurses are juggling dangerous workloads,” said BCNU President Aman Grewal. “The moral distress that many of our members are experiencing as they try their best to provide safe patient care amidst a severe nurse shortage has gone on for far too long.
“The pain you feel when you hear patients asking for help – but can’t get to them right away – has a lasting impact,” she said to the group. “Many of you know too well what it’s like to run from patient to patient on a shift, barely getting a break and doing your absolute best to do your job under extraordinary conditions.”
Grewal told members and the assembled media that nurses and patients deserve better. She also said minimum nurse-patient ratios are needed to retain nurses and save our health-care system, and referenced the agreement reached in April between the Nurses’ Bargaining Association and the province to implement nurse-patient ratios across health-care settings.
“This commitment by the provincial government is historic and BCNU is ready to roll up our sleeves to work with all parties on the implementation of this transformative staffing model,” she said.
BCNU Vice President Adriane Gear also spoke to members emphasizing that nurse-patient ratios simply cannot come soon enough.
“We are in the midst of a severe health-care crisis in this province and around the country,” she said. “Nurses stand with the doctors at Surrey Memorial, Eagle Ridge and Royal Columbian hospitals and we agree that the current staffing situation is unacceptable. Recruitment of as many nurses as possible into the health care system must be our government’s top priority.”
Gear called on members of the public to hold their government accountable and do whatever they can to stand up for their health-care system. “With your support – nurses can continue to provide safe patient care for years to come,” she said. “You deserve it. Your family members, and future generations deserve it.”
Grewal thanked the hundreds of nurses in attendance for their determined advocacy on behalf of their patients and co-workers.
“The work must continue to make health care better,” she said. “Better for nurses and better for patients, and we promise we will hold the government accountable every step of the way.”
Watch the rally highlights here.