Debra McPherson meets with Prince George Nurses
Her visit highlighted more than 250 unresolved PRFs filed by members in critical care at University Hospital of Northern BC
Several hundred BCNU members and other hospital staff met with BCNU president Debra McPherson Wednesday (Aug. 25) outside University Hospital of Northern BC to raise critical concerns about the quality of patient care in the facility.
As nurses wrote messages about their concerns on giant postcards addressed to BC Health Minister Kevin Falcon, McPherson told the news media about the Northern Health Authority's failure to address nursing practice issues raised in more than 250 PRFs filed by critical care nurses during the past two years.
McPherson's visit was the lead story on local television news and was featured on the front page of the city's daily newspaper.
"If you had 250 complaints from educated, professional people that lives were in danger, wouldn't you act? That is the responsibility of the health authority and it is the responsibility of the MLAs here," McPherson told the Prince George Citizen. "This is probably the worst response we have ever had (compared with other hospitals and health authorities). Some are near-death incidents, arising from the nurses' critical overload of patients. You would have to ask administration here as to why they are not responding."
McPherson highlighted staffing levels, particularly in critical care. She told the Citizen that nurses are sometimes required to work a full 18-24 hours without relief. Critically ill patients are left in the Emergency Room and the Post-Anaesthetic Recovery Room instead of being in the Intensive Care Unit where they belong. And she said staffing in the ICU is woefully inadequate.
"In most parts of the world it is one nurse per ventilated patient," said McPherson. "These are very sick people and they depend on the ventilator to stay alive. In this ICU, day in and day out, it is at least two patients per one nurse and on some shifts it has been as much as four, which is unacceptable by any standard anywhere in the world."
A Northern Health representative came out of the hospital and told the news media that there are no set ratios of nurses to patients in ICU, but staffing is determined based on patient acuity.
She claimed there is broad representation on a Critical Care Working Group that meets monthly. In fact, the union and front-line nurses and the union are not represented on the group.
The next step is for nurses to present the three large postcards to local MLAs, and ask them to pass them on to the Health Minister.
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