Writing about Health & Fitness

urses Demonstrate For Higher Wages

At 11.30 am, on the corner of Denman and Comox, some 200 Nurses from all over British Columbia were singing, waving and stopping traffic to inform the public and gather support for their push to raise salaries for B.C.’s 25,000 nurses (RPN’s & RN’s) in the ongoing negotiations with the B.C. government. As Debra McPherson, president elect, BC Nurses Union, put it: “We have good public support for our cause already, but we want people to know about the unbelievably silly negotiating tactics of putting rollbacks on the table during a nursing shortage.” A couple of motorcycle cops, and a lot of media were on hand and nurses in crisp white uniforms were handing out lime green flyers to passing motorists. It was a demonstration that drove home the message which we’ve been hearing for the last two weeks: We’re suffering from a severe nursing shortage, and that’s mostly because of low wages ---$26.50 per hour after six years for an RN is the top rate B.C pays. Other jurisdictions are also in a nursing crunch, and pay more. For example Ontario pays $30 and the US $60. And they are actively recruiting. No wonder the nurses were singing: “We are the nurses, the mighty mighty nurses, everywhere we go, people wanna know, who we are.”

They are the cornerstone of any medical system; without them, wards close, emergency wards shrink and surgeries are cancelled. According to McPherson, heart surgery for a child was cancelled yesterday because of a nurse shortage. “How long will this continue, and how many patients will suffer,” she asked. The facts are that B.C. is short of 1000 nurses. Compounding the problem is that a quarter of the new graduates leave every year. During the last 3 years more than 800 nurses left for the US. In 1999, 900 took the first steps toward eligibility in other jurisdictions. Others are moving to Ontario, and those numbers are also increasing. B.C. graduates only half the new nurses it needs every year, and more than 4,000 nurses are over the age of 55. They are eligible for retirement now. Nurses currently working are stressed because of too much overtime, which in turn is driven by the shortage.

Solving the problem is clear to the Nurses union, who says the following list of demands will go a long way towards solving what is clearly a problem that took years to develop and will not be solved overnight, either. They want to increase the top rate for a front line nurse to $42 per hour; increase the mileage allowance; up the current $1 night shift premium to $6 per hour; increase the weekend premium to $3 an hour and the on call premium to $12 an hour from the current $1.50 rate. In comparison, Doctors receive up to $40 per hour for being on call, and the salaries of administrators in the system have jumped. The CEO of Lions gate hospital received a 100percent increase over the past 11 years. Debra McPherson says that only public support will get them what they want. She urges the public to get in touch with their MLA, the premier, the leader of the opposition and the regional health authorities.

The negotiations resume next Tuesday.