Nurses Send a Message to Health Authority CEO

Nurses want her to keep the promise of quality healthcare through safe staffing.

Since September 2012 the Labour and Delivery Unit has lost twelve nurses. Nineteen experienced nurses from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit have also left in the past six months.

Despite new contract language which commits the employer to replace nurses when they are sick, fill vacancies and provide sufficient nurses for safe care, the constant use of overtime in the birthing unit and continual call-ins to already over-worked nurses to cover shifts is the norm.

An independent report released in August 2012 that looked at issues in the unit called for leaders to communicate and engage more effectively with the nurses, and create flexibility and training opportunities so that nurses can manage their work/lives better. Few if any of the suggestions have been implemented and BCNU is concerned that the stress on nurses and concerns over safe care are moving to other areas of the facility. Over 70 nurses in PICU recently signed a petition expressing concerns for their ability to protect their patients? safety and the facility's inability to retain the specialized nurses required for critically ill children in the unit.

"Nurses here are burnt out from working extra shifts, not being replaced when sick, and from not being respected," said Debra McPherson, President of the BC Nurses' Union.

"Well we have a message for Lynda Cranston and the managers who are refusing to take the required actions to improve the working environment and the care here at BC Women's and Children's hospital, Keep your promises!," concluded McPherson.