Nanaimo nurses descend on Island Health Board meeting to dispute safety of patient care model, deliver new petitions

Motivated by the board's refusal to give them time on its agenda, the nurses brought board members copies of a nurse survey from Nanaimo General Hospital (NRGH) revealing deep concern with the safety of the new system.

They also asked pointed questions in open session about the risks CDMR poses to patients, reminding the board that CDMR is about replacing nurses with unlicensed care aides who cannot do nursing work. This doubles the number of patients the remaining nurses are responsible for, which causes delays in care delivery that expose patients to increased risk of adverse events.

"We're shocked the board declined to hear stories from frontline nurses about the emerging gaps in patient safety under CDMR," said BCNU steward Kelley Charters. "We hear Island Health saying they want to understand how we're feeling, but it seems they'd rather not hear how badly it's going in practice."

"Nurses are committed to caring safely for their patients, so we aren't going to sit back and say nothing if a new patient model downgrades care," said BCNU steward Kris Vanlambalgen. "You can't double the patients each nurse is responsible for without making it virtually impossible to deliver their care safely."

"The nurse survey shows just how badly wrong CDMR went the moment it was implemented," said Charters. "When nine out of ten nurses working there wouldn't want a family member to be a patient on their own unit, you know you have problems."

CDMR was first introduced at NRGH in September 2013, where 26 professional nurses were replaced with care aides on medical and surgical units. Island Health has also announced CDMR for Victoria, where 122 nurses were to be replaced with care aides in January - a plan now delayed until April 23rd.

The nurses delivered nearly 2,000 newly signed petitions calling on Island Health to halt CDMR and agree to an independent expert review of its potential impacts on patient safety. This brings to 12,000 the number of people expressing concerns for the safety of patients in CDMR units.