Showing support for fellow nurses

Dear Editor

I am a Registered Nurse, RN, who has worked in Long Term Care for over 25 years. I am employed by Central Health at North Haven Manor in Lewisporte.

Members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses Union [NLNU] are presently conducting a We Need More Nurses campaign. As part of this campaign NLNU is asking RNs to stop performing a specific list of non-nursing duties. NLNU has emphasized and reinforced that we will continue all patient care related activities. With a provincial shortage of over 1,000 registered nurses patients cannot afford to have nurses spending time away from care doing such things as cleaning, filing, arranging maintenance and replacing non-nursing staff.

Initially employers met with nurses addressing ways to accommodate this campaign in individual work sites. On Thursday, October 9, 2008 members in Central Health were advised verbally and by individual letters that they would be expected to do everything they had been doing the status quo was to be maintained. We were advised that failure to perform non-nursing duties would result in the individual RN being disciplined. On October 10, Mr. John Peddle insulted every RN and every resident in Long Term Care in Newfoundland and Labrador by saying nurses got nothing to do. So they do everything. Despite these comments and threat of discipline NLNU members continue to focus on patient care by eliminating specific non-nursing duties from the registered nurses responsibilities.

On October 29, an RN at the Dr. Hugh Twomey Centre in Botwood was given a written reprimand for not calling a housekeeping staff. Registered Nurses in Long Term Care facilities with Central Health have had the responsibility for calling in non-nursing staff, arranging maintenance IE calling electricians, plumbers, oil companies etc, and calling for snow clearing, added to their duties over the years. Concurrent with this, the level of care required of residents has dramatically increased and RN staffing has decreased. RNs are saying, Our resident care come first. We are asking the employer to work with us to find alternate means to have these non-nursing duties completed.

The RN in Botwood has my admiration and respect. The action she took is on the behalf of the many nurses in rural and Long Term Care areas who find themselves stretched too thin, overworked, and undervalued. It is in our nature to accommodate, but the time has come to say, We care for our patients first.



Patricia McLay RN. BN.