 Patient Advocacy is a primary responsibility of nurses. We have negotiated a process for nurses to advocate for safe care, care management and safe staff levels through Local Professional Responsibility Committees. Nurses can raise concerns and demand Employer response to our concerns through our PRCs. (Some Locals have Labour/Management or other committee structures).Safe staffing levels are a major concern for Registered nurses and a significant area in our Professional Responsibility Committees. We work to ensure high quality patient care is delivered by skilled practitioners
Purpose:
To regulate working conditions and management practices so that they ensure the delivery of high quality health care.
To protect the professional licenses of nurses.
To give professional nurses a say in the quality of the care they provide.
To provide legal protection for nurses in matters pertaining to the delivery of health care.
To clarify the process for nurses’ input into the delivery of quality care.
To provide Union representation for employees in matters pertaining to safe patient/resident/client care.
To provide a systematic means of problem-solving in matters relating to the delivery of quality health care.
To ensure that the employer and the Union assemble facts and arguments to justify their respective positions.
To provide for the final resolution of disputes.
Filing a Professional Responsibility complaint
Every time an urgent unsafe and/or unprofessional practice or setting is created by the employer, a Professional Responsibility complaint should be filed. The complaint must be dealt with by your employer within 10 days. To file a Professional Responsibility complaint you:
Fill out the UNA Professional Responsibility/Staffing form, filling in all of the blanks.
Never use a patient's/resident's/client's name, a doctor's name, a visitor's name or a nurse's name. Call them Patient/Resident/Client/Doctor X, etc.
Take the completed form to the Local's Professional Responsibility Committee or contact a Local Executive member to collect your form.
The PRC will contact you and conduct an investigation into your complaint.
The PRC will present your complaint to the Joint Professional Responsibility Committee. The Union PRC will have clear time lines for the resolution of this complaint by the employer.
If there is no resolution within 45 days, the Union has the right to present your complaint to the facility’s governing Board.
If your patient/resident/client concern is not urgent you may simply call a member of your UNA Professional Responsibility Committee and ask that your concern be included on the agenda of an upcoming PRC meeting. You may be asked to provide documentation regarding the facts and details regarding specific situations.
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