May 12, 2008	PDF format : 20 Kb

The BC Nurses' Union will celebrate National Nursing Week May 12-18 with a postcard campaign to the Premier, the union's second annual professional nursing conference and radio ads honouring nurses for the care they provide to patients.

BCNU members are receiving a letter in the mail from BCNU president Debra McPherson describing the union's campaign to address health system overcapacity and overcrowding. The mailing includes a postcard to Premier Gordon Campbell.

"The card puts the Premier on notice that nurses deserve respect and that we expect to be fully involved in planning patient care 52 weeks a year, not just during Nursing Week," McPherson says. "I'm urging all our members to fill out the postcard and mail it to the Premier."

The union is also sponsoring its second annual Nursing Week conference May 15-16 at Vancouver's Four Seasons Hotel entitled "Sharing our Practice: Supporting Innovations". Registration is full for the conference which will feature keynote speakers about worklife balance, inter-generational issues, ethics in nursing practice, nursing education, international assistance, and other professional concerns.

Speakers include nurses describing various innovative projects at their workplace, plus:

• Nora Spinks, president of Work-Life Harmony Enterprises
• Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
• Daniel Savoie, nursing instructor University of New Brunswick, the first paraplegic to complete a baccalaureate nursing program in Canada
• Linda Duxbury, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
• Paula Bond, chief nursing executive, BC Ministry of Health
• Penny Priddy, MP, former BC Minister of Health
• Kathy Kinlock, Dean, school of health sciences, British Columbia Institute of Technology

In addition, BCNU will be sponsoring radio ads throughout the province highlighting its members' contributions to patient care amid staff shortages and challenging working conditions.