Joint advertising campaign by UNA and CARNA college set to begin Monday

Starting Monday, United Nurses of Alberta and the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta will jointly mark National Nursing Week and celebrate the work done by RNs in their role as the backbone of Canada’s health care system.

The month-long outdoor advertising campaign – which will feature traditional billboards, digital billboards and a variety of shapes and sizes of transit shelter posters – will continue until the end of May.

National Nursing Week traditionally falls on the week of Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12, which means this year it will run officially from May 9 to 15.

The campaign will feature messages that say, “RN, two letters that make a vital difference to your care.” A website at YourRN.ca will soon provide more information on the nursing profession and the contributions made by RNs to Canada’s health care system.

United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith calls the co-operative effort between her union and the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta “a historic undertaking” that will enable UNA and CARNA “to work together toward our shared goal of ensuring Albertans always receive high-quality health care that includes the best nursing care.”

The outdoor advertisements, which depict a real Alberta Registered Nurse who is a member of both UNA and CARNA, will appear at close to 70 locations near major hospitals in Calgary, Edmonton, St. Albert, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and Grande Prairie.

UNA is the union for more than 30,000 RNs, Registered Psychiatric Nurses and allied workers in Alberta. More than 90 per cent of UNA’s members are RNs. Since 1977, UNA has been an effective advocate for nurses, the nursing profession and Canada’s fair and efficient public health-care system.

CARNA is the professional and regulatory body for Alberta’s more than 37,000 RNs and Nurse Practitioners, including nurses in direct care, education, research and administration. That number includes all RNs who are members of UNA. CARNA’s mandate is to protect the public by ensuring Albertans receive effective, safe and ethical care by RNs.

Florence Nightingale, born in 1820, was a celebrated English writer, social reformer and statistician, who is credited with being the founder of the modern nursing profession. She died at the age of 90 in 1910.