PrintWorkplace safety for nurses and other health care workers essential to effective advocacy for patient safety
On Day of Mourning, nurses recognize role of workplace safety in patient safety advocacy
Today is the International Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job.
Nurses’ patient-safety advocacy is well known, understood and supported by Albertans and Canadians. They see this kind of advocacy as a core part of the job of any Registered Nurse – and they are glad it is a role members of United Nurses of Alberta take seriously and strive to fulfill throughout their nursing careers.
UNA also believes speaking up forcefully for the safety of nurses, other health care workers and all working people on the job is part of our union’s patient advocacy role.
The links are obvious when we think about them – effective health care depends on safe and skilled health care workers, yet nursing in particular is a job that carries health risks ranging from back injuries received moving patients to dealing with volatile situations.
Our goal is to help all working people and encourage them to be safe so they do not need the services health care professionals like Registered Nurses provide in an emergency.
UNA members are particularly mindful of this around April 28, the International Day of Mourning for working people throughout the world who are killed or injured on the job.
Over the past several years, UNA members have been particularly concerned with the potential impacts on worker and patient health and safety of the security measures in Alberta health care facilities, especially those in remote locations where police services are far away and not always available.
Employers are required to provide safe workplaces for employees, and to educate all employees about how to report health and safety problems they have experienced or see developing, including the potential for workplace violence.
Because front-line nurses tend to emphasize patient care over all else, UNA strives to encourage them to take part in this vital reporting and monitoring process, which is essential to the occupational health and safety of everyone who works in or needs to use health care in Alberta.
Only when nurses have safe workplaces can they feel safe – and thus have the ability to advocate and provide safe patient care in confidence.
