Alberta Health Services

It seems that what Mr Duckett and his mickey mouse club set out to do is turn employees against each other as a way of deflecting the real issues affecting Alberta Healthcare Services and a good example is this debate betwen RNs and LPNs wages. Why? Nurses are deserving of whatever they get paid, otherwise why don't these suit and tie wearing individuals come hang those I.Vs, comfort grieving families, clean bums and and then put a price on it.... Some of us have seen it before, where cuts are made, hospitals always come out worse with a bigger deficit. Know why...... more money is spent on OT and doing a massive recruitment 6 months down the line. Haven't some of us seen this before?

I read all of these articles and this guy Duckett, is seriously deluded. I really hope that the public wakes up to what the reality of living under his regime will be. Tea breaks, LOL!

In regards to acute geri beds, I guess his plan doesn't include the elderly that are poor or have serious psych issues.

Anyways, I sign off in solidarity.

Yes - I challenge "Duck-it" to come & spend a shift on my unit & see how many coffee breaks & tea breaks & lunch breaks and so on HE gets!!!!!

Has anyone taken a look at the Edmonton Journal and read the blog on Nursing students and their appearance at the legislature?
Gettin public support is going to be difficult. Some on this site have actually stated "the nurses need to get off their high horse and down with the real world". One person stated " that she saves lives for a living" and was ripped to shreads .....and was called a liar. I know I have saved lives in the ER a few times , why would this statment be hard to believe????They are very mean!!!!! When I read the blog it makes me want to do something else or move out of the province,...as we are obviously not appreciated.
The people of Alberta need to wake up and see that our public health care system is dying fast and they don't seem to care......I really don't understand. Makes me nervous for my job, I am looking at other options ie : other provinces , Arizona etc. Everyone thinks we do our jobs for money, that wasen't even a thought when I entered university...all I wanted to do was to help people.

That particular story's comments are actually fairly mild compared to some of the other recent stories about nurses and health care. There is a certain segment of the population that truly doesn't get that when nurses speak up about cuts they're actually speaking up about quality of care, accessibility of care, patient safety and measurable outcomes. They also have a distorted view of what it is we do as nurses. Their perceptions are skewed by mass-media representations of nursing and all the negative stereotypes out there. All they see is $$... Why on Earth should I be paid $40 an hour to empty bedpans? If only that's all I did in a 12 hour shift.

I was speaking to a fellow yesterday who is a painter by trade. (He and his crew just painted the interior of my house.) He had a scope done last week and has a small thrombus in his cephalic vein from his IV. He asked me my opinion of it so I gave him the Reader's Digest version of thrombus development and lysis. He asked me if I had to go back to work today so I explained that I still have a week of vacation time. That led to a discussion of hours of work (that "wall" we hit at about 10 hours into the shift and how it's about the worst time of the whole shift to be foggy) and how with the way my rotation is designed, every six weeks I have a stretch of 5 days off. He asked if we were busy. That led to a discussion of H1N1 and the statistics that have come from South America, Australia and Europe. To make a long story short, when the conversation was done, he said, "I had no idea how much you nurses need to know and how complex your jobs are. When I was in the ER with this clot, I saw just how hard you all work. We need more of you." Now if he could just tell two friends, and they could tell two friends...

Yeah wouldn't that be nice if they actually knew what is involved in looking after someone who is sick.We are not a group of dumb bunnies...it is a lot of information to treat all those and know all the diseases......and all about the new ones popping up. It truely is lifelong education. I hope he does tell friends.

I also wish that the public had a clue about the level of responsibility that nurses have and how much decision making nurses really do. There seems to be this perception that the Doctors are always around telling nurses which bed pans to empty. Drives me crazy.