June 15, 2005
Heather Smith presented with Bread and Roses Award at CFNU
UNA President Heather Smith was caught totally by surprise when she was presented with the Bread and Roses Award at the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) Biennium in Regina.
“It was one of my proudest moments,” CFNU President Linda Silas said about presenting the award to Heather Smith. “Heather has been a mentor, all my activist career. I struck it lucky that as president, the first Bread and Roses Award I get to present is to Heather.”
“She’s a model for every woman in Canada, not only for nurses. There’s not one national meeting, or international meeting for that matter, that I have been to where they haven’t heard about Heather Smith and the United Nurses of Alberta.”
The CFNU presents its prestigious national award only once every two years. It is for outstanding nurse union members who contribute to policy and decision-making, enhancing public awareness, participating in positive media and other public events, lobbying governments and educating members and the public.
Photos of the presentation to Heather Smith and of other nurses at the Biennium are on the UNA website, www.una.ab.ca and on the UNA*Net.
Interim report released on nursing shortage
The “Phase One” report of yet another study on the nursing shortage in Canada has recently been released. It comes from the project “Building the Future: an integrated strategy for nursing human resources in Canada”. The project on the nursing shortage has been the Health Canada/Ministers of Health consortium brain trust with a range of stakeholders.
The report’s findings will come as little surprise to most health workers.
“Nurses from both hospital and non-hospital settings report workloads that are too heavy for the number of staff resulting in undue time constraints, decreased quality of care and lack of job satisfaction. Furthermore, the detrimental effects of poor working conditions on recruitment and retention are reportedly contributing to high rates of turnover that in turn, lead to decreased morale and further deterioration in the work environment.”
The report includes a number of recommendations including:
• “Implement effective and efficient mechanisms to address workload issues and improve patient, nurse, and systems outcomes.”
• “Improve and maintain the health and safety of nurses.”
There is also a series of 13 Technical reports, including Nurse Union Activists Report of Focus Groups.
Supreme Court decision rocks Medicare
A flurry of reporting followed up the recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that Quebec’s Charter of rights was violated by that province’s law banning private insurance. Many commentators, including Roy Romanow, pointed out that Canadian governments cannot maintain Medicare without adequate financing that supports a timely system.
Study shows computer bests nurse in triage
A study done in part by the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta showed that triage decisions made by a nurse using a computerized decision support tool were quite different from decisions made by nurses who did not use the computer.
The study was done over 700 emergency patients and the triage decisions were also compared with those suggested by an expert panel. The computer-assisted decisions were closer to those recommended by the experts than the decisions of the nurse alone.
“There was a significant down-triaging of patients when patients were triaged without the computerized tool. Admission rates also differed between the triage systems,” the researchers said. They suggested that computerized triage could make more consistent decisions than nurses using “memory-based triage”.
The study was published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
AUPE LPN negotiations still have not tackled wages
More articles were signed off in recent contract talks between eight Health Regions and the auxiliary nursing care staff, largely LPNs, who are represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). But wages and several other important items remain to be dealt with.
“Wages are at the top of the list and we’re still very far apart,” AUPE negotiator Jim Petrie said.
Seniority will not be portable between Regions, in the seniority articles that are signed off in the talks. AUPE and the Regions are negotiating the changes coming out of the Bill 27 mandated Health Region-wide bargaining unit changes.
Further bargaining dates were set for June 22 and 23. The Calgary Health Region is the only one not included in the negotiations.
Health Regions run virtual job fair
Alberta’s Health Regions have a website with a “virtual job fair” that is a permanent recruiting tool in the province. A recent check showed over 100 RN positions posted. The website, www.healthjobs.ab.ca is run by Health Boards of Alberta Services (HBAS) and includes all nursing and nursing assistant type jobs as well as all allied health professions, technicians and more. A quick review of the site showed just one clinic dietician position, and no Registered Psychiatric Nurse positions, one nurse practitioner (an infection control practitioner). It also had 32 nursing attendant jobs and 14 LPN positions. A number of Regions, including Calgary and Capital Health did not have any positions posted on the site.
American nurses report U.S. health care in crisis
In their annual statement on health care, the American Nurses Association report “The U.S. health care system remains in a state of crisis. Despite incremental efforts at reform, the number of uninsured continues to grow; the cost of care continues to rise; and the safety and quality of care is questioned. The overwhelming problems of the health care system require significant attention on the part of health professionals, policy makers and the public.”
Museum of Civilization exhibit on Canadian nursing
The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa is running a major exhibit on nursing from June 17 to September 4. The exhibit, which includes photos of nursing union history contributed by UNA, is called A Caring Profession: Centuries of Nursing in Canada.
Hundreds of artifacts (from stethoscopes to nursing uniforms), vintage films and historic photos tell the story of nursing in Canada: its beginnings in 17th-century New France, the hardships and isolation that nurses experienced, the increasing modernization and professionalization of health care, contemporary issues and concerns about the future.
A book, On all Frontiers: Four Centuries of Canadian Nursing, is being published in English and French and will be launched at the exhibition opening.
Calgary Health Region survey shows staff reluctant to report errors
The Calgary Health Region released a survey last week showing that 69% of Employees believe health care errors often go unreported, the same statistic as was found in the last survey in 2003. The Region says this shows “the need to focus on supporting employees to report hazards in the system.”
CHR also says the results are similar to world wide studies that show only about 10% of adverse events are reported. “The Region is committed to making substantial changes to reporting systems and processes to improve effectiveness,” they say.
Time to vote for AARN Council
Ballots for the election of the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses (AARN) Provincial Council must be received by the AARN by July 11, 2005.
Some candidates have supplied information to UNA and it is posted in the AARN First Class conference.
On the Light Side
A pregnant lady was in an accident and she woke up in the hospital.
She noticed she was not pregnant anymore and asked the nurse what happened to her baby.
The nurse said, “You have two healthy babies, a boy and a girl!”
The lady said, “Oh, I must name them,” but the nurse said, “You were unconscious, so we called your brother, and he named them!”
The lady said, “But he’s as dumb as a box of rocks! So what are their names?”
The nurse said, “The girl is called “Denise.”
The woman replied, “Well that is a pretty name, so what did he name my boy?”
The nurse replied, “Denephew!”
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