It’s Alberta’s Health and Wellness department and the province in general that’s responsible for the shortage of Registered Nurses in this province, not nurses’ alleged ‘greed’, says one spokesman for nurses. And information being circulated in blanket advertisements that Regional Health Authorities have placed in daily and weekly newspapers “borders on lies.
“They’re trying to make it sound like nurses are lining up to get big fat pay cheques,” says Terryl Herrick, United Nurses of Alberta rep for Local 60 that covers Slave Lake health complex and the Desmarais hospital.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous, the spin they’ve put on this, and it’s shed an incredibly bad light on nurses.
‘They’re bashing nurses as a whole, and this is very hard to read what your employer thinks of you.”
Nurses’ contracts expired Monday (Mar. 31), and earlier this spring the province adopted new legislation making it illegal for them to strike, effectively removing any chance for meaningful negotiations, Herrick added.
“They introduced Bill 27 – a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo — so they don’t have to negotiate. Then, they launched the big smear campaign” to pit Albertans against nurses.
“They say nurses are greedy, and that’s simply not true. They’ve skewed everything.” That’s why UNA is calling for Health Minister Gary Mar to fire the person responsible for the misleading ads.
At issue, says the UNA rep, is not money but conditions. Specifically, nurses are speaking out against the overtime they’re expected to work because of the nursing shortages. RHA ads, on the other hand, blame some RNs’ decision to work part time rather than full time. That’s another fallacy, says Herrick.
“We just want to make sure we have time off between shifts.” She said there are 20,000 RNs in Alberta working an average of 30,000 hours of overtime each week.
“They want no scheduling provisions, and we’re just trying to make a safe environment.
“Who wants a nurse that’s worked 70 hours in a week?”
Nurses have valid reasons for choosing to work part time, she said. And it’s not about money even though the ads insist it’s all about greed.
“It’s really awful that nurses like Marilyn (Larivee) — an excellent nurse – is getting slapped by their employer.”
Larivee has 35 years experience and took exception to the ads criticizing her decision to work just part time. In a Letter to the Editor, she challenged those placing the ads to “walk a mile in my shoes…when I sit with a dying patient and their families, with a mother having a baby, or assist with an emergency.”
The province has no one but itself to blame for the lack of willing RNs, says Herrick.
“There’s a shortage because of the last time they regionalized and cut all those jobs.
“And if we’re doing so well, why the hell aren’t there more of us?”

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