Nurses wear white on Wednesdays to show professional pride

UNA’s Negotiating Committee is asking nurses to wear traditional nursing white on Wednesdays to show support for their bargaining committee and the nursing profession. Nurses who are not able to wear white are encouraged to wear Registered Nurse or Registered Psychiatric Nurse pins.

All across Alberta, Registered Nurse, Registered Psychiatric Nurse and Licensed Practical Nurse jobs are disappearing as the government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services implement staffing changes they call "Workforce Transformation" and the "Clinical Workforce Strategic Plan."

They are replacing educated and skilled nurses, whose profession is regulated, with non-professional and unregulated Health Care Aides.

This contradicts all evidence of the best way to run a safe and effective health care system. Eliminating nurses and replacing them with non-professional aides lowers the quality of health care and increases risks for patients.

Alberta Health Services has also combined this dangerous policy with offensive bargaining proposals in contract negotiations with nurses – at the same time as they have a $106-million surplus in the AHS budget!

Nurses are the key reason our health care system is safe and cost effective - and $106 million is enough to hire well over 1,000 more full-time experienced Registered Nurses for a full year.

How many nursing jobs have "disappeared?" How many more will be eliminated? UNA wants Alberta Health Services to tell us and all Albertans what their intentions are, and how they will impact health care in Alberta.

Visit NursesMaketheDifference.ca and tell Health Minister Fred Horne that disappearing nursing jobs are simply not acceptable!