UNA Rallys In Olds For Better Wages For Nurses, Safe Staffing Levels For Patient Care

A rally was held last week in the Town of Olds by members of the United Nurses of Alberta in conjunction with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

UNA Local 43 Vice-President Thomas Edwards says they were at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre from 11am until 1pm on July 23rd and the rally included about 70 to 80 participants. He says “they can definitely be effective because they are a good visualization of people that, when you go into a hospital you are not seeing every single person that works in that facility. You are not seeing every single Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), you are not seeing every single Registered Nurse (RN). The health care aids, the kitchen workers, the environmental service workers, the lab techs. So having a large group out on the sidewalk, that shows you these people are in the facility providing the care every day. These people are the ones that are struggling, they are struggling to make ends meat, and they are struggling in their work places to give the care that everyone needs.”

Edwards thanks everyone who came out to last Tuesday’s rally to support their calls for better wages for nurses and safe staffing levels for patient care. He says “we got a lot of honks of horns. We did get a few people come up and ask questions and that was really fantastic. Number one, people who are seeing the struggles we are facing in health care, please write to your MLA. Let them know what your concerns are, let them know what the struggles are that you are facing and that you want this government to ensure that our health care system is publicly delivered, publicly administered, and high functioning.”

He says the employer is not committed at the moment to ensuring that safe patient ratios in different units at differing levels of care are being met.

So for UNA, Edwards notes one of the demands in their bargaining package was to request things like staffing levels in an Intensive Care Unit on a ventilated patient have to be a one to one ratio for registered nurses. He says “an ICU non-ventilated patient is two to one and a step down even is three to one. In an acute care unit, which is what we are seeing in things like the Olds Hospital, has to be no more than a four to one ratio. Whereas at times we are seeing five, six, seven, or eight to one. Eight patients to one nurse. That is just really impacting the amount of care people can provide. It cuts down on the number of hours they are getting from their nurses, the number of treatments they can get. The side care, like bathing, dressing, cleaning. All of those things are becoming secondary when we don’t focus on this high quality patient care.”

He discusses what the patient ratios look like at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre. Edwards says “so things that we are seeing, and I will admit our employer in this site does strive to meet higher levels but we are still seeing things like five, six, seven to one on our medical side. On our surgical side, it is more like four or five to one.”

Edwards says the United Nurses of Alberta have entered into voluntary mediation. So this month, he says they are meeting with the mediator who is going to sit down with them along with the employer and the provincial government to try to see where each party is at.

According to Edwards, they have 9 to 12 days set aside in September to get back to the bargaining table and talk with them.