More than 50 members of the BC Nurses Union rallied Wednesday in Prince George to make the public aware that low-level staffing and high workloads are compromising quality patient care by nurses at University Hospital of Northern B.C.
Jackie Nault, BC Nurses Union regional chair for Northeast region, said the nurses goal is to "provide high quality patient care at all times."
During the past two years, nurses say they have filed more than 250 documents called Professional Responsibility Forms and submitted them to Northern Health management.
A meeting has been set up for Nov. 8 between the BCNU officials and Cathy Ulrich, CEO for Northern Health and Michael McMillan, NH chief operations officer to discuss the concerns.
Nault is asking the public to contact their MLAs, encouraging support for the UHNBC, the referral hospital for the North and for nursing support.
While vehicles honked as they passed the rally at Fourth Avenue and Brunswick Street, nurses displayed such signs as Hear My Cry for Help, Too Many Near Misses, and We Care About Patient Safety.
They have three giant postcards ready to go to B.C. health services minister, Kevin Falcon with their messages about needing enough qualified RNs for safe patient care now.
"Nurses are tired," "long wait times in emergency", and "we need time to care," they wrote.
McMillan says there's "an element of valid points" in what the nurses are saying.
"There are times when the loads get very heavy - like winter when respiratory patient counts go up or a bad flu hits. But every single day we track the hours of care per patient for each unit. The majority of time we're comfortable with our level of care. Patient care is our number one priority," said McMillan.
He said most of the problems stem from the specialty areas like ICU and Emergency that require specially trained nurses.
"We're working towards better levels, especially in ICU, through more training programs for newer nurses, but more work needs to be done. It's a complex system that also requires support for new specialty nurses in order to keep them," McMillan said.
Overall, he says he wants staff to bring concerns to their managers and to understand the channels available to have their say and share their solutions.
"We're not an island unto ourselves. Looking across B.C. and the world, there are challenges with up and down demands which can be very difficult."
BCNU was hoping to issue concerns at the board of directors meeting Wednesday, but was refused on grounds of policy.
"Staff does not present at our public meetings unless asked to, but they have access to the board in other ways. In this case they've been invited to meet with the CEO and myself," said McMillan.
