Wednesday, October 29, 2008
High Prairie staff open and honest
about syringe protocol issue
UNA says fears fanned by irresponsible comments
The United Nurses of Alberta says investigation will clear up widespread misinformation about High Prairie syringe use concerns.
“The nurses in High Prairie did the right thing by honestly raising concerns about the syringe protocol,” UNA President Heather Smith said today at the union’s annual provincial meeting in Edmonton. “The nurses’ honest and open approach is completely different from a “shoot, shovel and shut up” mentality.”
“We agree with Health and Wellness Minister Ron Liepert that this is not about blaming the front-line nurses when we had a system failure about updating protocols,” Heather Smith said.
The protocol of using multi-dose syringes on different intravenous infusions has varied from site-to-site and had been used in many health facilities in Alberta until fairly recently. The protocol change information was not fully circulated in High Prairie.
“This was a change to a new and even safer best-practice,” Heather Smith notes. “We agree with Peace Country Health’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. De Villiers that the risk is extremely low. The multi-dose syringe practice was NOT considered dangerous and the risk from using a multi-dose syringe is infintesmal.”
“This is NOT a case of “dirty needles” or “sharing needles” as some media have reported,” Heather Smith said. “There has been a good deal of irresponsible fear-mongering by some who do not understand the actual circumstances. This causes unnecessary fear and concern for Albertans.”
“Province-wide, our nurses tell us that cuts to on-site clinical education and infection control staff make it more difficult to keep up with changing standards. We need to provide our front-line nurse with adequate professional support to maintain safest practices for our patients,” Heather Smith said.
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