Shocking News: CRNBC Cuts Library Services

BC Nurses are caught in the crosshairs of a series of lawsuits between our union and our professional nurse's association. Our regulatory body continues to cut services despite increasing fees. Our library services have been cut and this leaves private practice nurses unable to fulfill a professional standard. Nurses Announcements Archive

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  1. How will cuts to library services impact you and are you in private practice?

    • 1
      No, the cuts don't impact me. I'm covered under a health authority and/or university account.
    • 0
      Yes, I'm in private practice and this will affect me.
    • 0
      Yes, I'm in private practice but I am accessing journals through other means such as a friend's account.

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Shocking news for BC Nurses! CRNBC has cut library services despite increasing fees. BC nurses are caught in the political crosshairs of our union, regulatory body and its member association and it's costing us money.

As of March 2017, the CRNBC Canadian Registered Nurses of BC (About CRNBC), BC's licensing body cut library services. See this statement from the CRNBC Library.

CRNBC's primary role is to protect the public, yet comparatively, their fees are above some of the other regulatory bodies in Canada. We do pay to be a self-regulating professional however, to what extent and level of fees are we willing and able to pay?

In addition, BC nurse's fees are going to the BC Nurse's Union which is suing the Association of Registered Nurses and to the ARNBC to help them defend against these lawsuits. It's time for BC nurses to speak up and protest against the power of some of our nursing professional bodies and misuse of our money. This is nothing short of bullying and abuse of power.

Regarding CNRBC's new cuts to library access, they list public health authorities and nurse's alumni universities as avenues through which nurses can access journals and online materials. There is one huge problem. This leaves private, practicing nurses without access to current information to inform evidenced-based practice.

Given CRNBC's professional standard's requirement (Knowledge-based Practice) to "Base practice on current evidence from nursing science and other sciences and humanities," private practice nurses are now in the dark and cannot fulfill one of the major standards that CRNBC sets out for practice requirements.

The Association of Registered Nurses of BC, our association for nurse advocacy and public policy was not aware of this change until last month. As per CRNBC's suggestion I contacted my former University where I studied for my RN refresher course and found that only current alumni can access their library services. The university's head librarian was not informed of the changes CNRBC had made, nor that CRNBC had listed these solutions/suggestions.

Nurses in private practice without access via health authorities can go in person to a local university and obtain a community card, but you cannot access these resources online which is critical for practice. RNs and NPs need access to world wide publications for evidence based practice and research.

Given the increasing funds that RNs and NPs pay yearly to CRNBC along with other BC nursing bodies this is highly frustrating. Currently, as of 2017:

CRNBC fees are 350.40 dollars for licensing registration. In addition there are details in schedule D.

ARNBC fees: 110.55 dollars for our nursing association which advocates for nurses and speaks to public health policy. They are now being sued by the BC Nurse's Union. This means that our union fees are going toward suing our association and ARNBC's fee increases go towards the need to defend themselves.

From CRNBC: "A note about additional commercial general : All RNs and NPs are also covered by Commercial General Liability insurance provided by Encon Group Inc. If you have questions about this policy, please direct them to ARNBC.

ARNBC statement regarding Encon Group Inc for general liability:

"All RNs and NPS also have Commercial General Liability insurance coverage provided by Encon Group Inc. There is an aggregate limit of 2,000,000 dollars for all participants and a deductible of 500 dollars applies."

This is very important to note. Aggregate limits work as a pool of money offered in a given year for all nursing lawsuits happening in that province. Many nurses are under the impression that they are individually covered for 2 million, this is not the case.

CNPS Canadian Nurses Protective Society fees 63.50 dollars for additional liability insurance and offer legal guidance. On a personal note, their services have been outstanding in regards to practice questions. You can now also go to CNPS pertaining to complaints made to your regulatory body.

ARNBC plus the CNPS fees total: 174.05 dollars As a comparison, we can look at the licensing body in Ontario Nurse's regulatory/licensing body fee structure as well as the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario who advocate and support nurses as well as speak to public policy.

College of Nurses of Ontario: "The 2018 renewal fee for members in the General and Extended classes is 200 dollars. (With HST, the total is 226 dollars.)"

RNAO - Registered Nurses Association of Ontario: fees include additional liability insurance much like the BC nurse's CNPS (Canadian Nurses Protective Society).

RNAO fees plus liability insurance are: 256 dollars. RNAO also has an addition option of offering LAP, a legal assistance program for 64.57 dollars.

How can we as nurses protest these blatant abuses of power and our money as evidenced by a nurse's union suing its member's association? How will nurses in BC access information online for purposes of research and evidenced based practice?

Do we now need another body to protect us from our regulatory bodies and unions?

How do nurses have a collective voice and how do we stop this? I fear that we are a stressed and burnt out profession and many of us have come to a place of complacency born out of a feeling of powerlessness.What is the answer?

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I don't know if you are aware but the CRNBC has learning resources publicly available on their website. The resources include; web learning modules, webinars, case studies, practice resources and can be used to meet the quality assurance requirements. Also, if you are a member of ARNBC you will automatically be a member of CNA and can have access to CNA's nurseone.ca which includes a library resource. You can also publicly access Ontario's RNAO best practice guidelines (you do not need to be a member). Also, nurses who are members of specialty nursing organizations often receive journals/newsletters related to their speciality and attend conferences. For disease specific information, nurses can use google to search Canadian resources for healthcare professionals. For drug or treatment specific information, nurses can search the manufacturer's company websites for their professional information. There are many ways for nurses to keep their practice up to date and continue life long learning, there is no need for regulating bodies to keep an underutilized, expensive library service for a handful of private practice nurses.

I am not sure how your comparison of BC's and Ontario's regulatory body registration and professional association membership costs relate to library services, can you explain? Nor do I understand what the BC nursing union suing the professional association has to do with library services. It is hard for me to understand the point of your disagreement when you seem to be throwing unrelated ideas together.

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I'm licensed in BC and Ontario, and I have to say BC offers way more practice supports for its nurses than here in Ontario. For example, for LPNs/RPNs, CLPNBC's fees might seem higher than CNO's fees but it's not true when you add everything up... at least not in my case. It depends obviously on your level of registration (ex. NPs pay over $1,000/year to CNO, RNs/RPNs pay over $200/year-fees are higher for initial registrants), and other memberships at additional costs are required to practice. As for BC... For example, CLPNBC includes liability protection into its membership fee; they also allow nurses to pay their membership fees in installments throughout the year to make paying more manageable, unlike CNO which grabs your money in a lump sum. Also, CLPNBC offers access to all sorts of free certifications required for certain types of employment. In Ontario, nurses pay for all certifications/con-Ed/resources out of pocket and have to obtain from either their professional membership association (packaged into their SEPARATE annual fees) or a private insurer. Thus, making maintaining membership in Ontario more expensive; and, that is still in consideration of CNO's $71 price drop (for general class nurses) in Annual Membership Renewal fees this year.

I don't fully understand the OPs stated connection between the union and CRNBC, and the nullification of library resources? Perhaps OP can clarify how the union had a hand in this? I suspect it has something to do with the impending merger into a centralized regulatory college in BC.

In Ontario, we fork over fees to our regulatory colleges and professional associations but don't much in return when compared to BC. We continue to do it because maintaining these registrations and memberships is required in order to practice.... so, they've kind of got us by the balls. I don't really see a way to opt out if it's part and parcel of being in a regulated profession. We have to pay-to-play... and don't they know it :uhoh3:

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CRNBC library notice of shut down, did not list CNA as a resource for journal access. The ARNBC did not list the CNA as a possible resource for journal access either when I spoke to them last month.

This is the CNA announcement, note that the EBSCO and Stat ref and e-Therapeutics databases are no longer available:

"Library Resources

To search our e-book library resources, click the logo of your choice.

As of January 1, 2015, the library resources offered on NurseONE.ca have changed.

The Ebsco, Stat Ref and e-Therapeutics databases are no longer available.

We're excited about our plans to expand our already extensive collection of more than 2,000 e-books. Over the coming months, CNA will be consulting with Canadian RNs to help expand the e-book collection to ensure the selection is highly relevant and useful to current RN practice.

Are there topics or specific e-books you would like us to consider adding to our e-library? Send your ideas to [email protected].

- See more at: https://www.nurseone.ca/my-nurseone/library#sthash.AqjbXXFY.dpuf"

I fully utilized the CRNBC library on a regular basis. They sent me journal articles and books which I needed as I was in a niche of nursing that was just coming into its own. I am still in areas of nursing that are just beginning to emerge. CRNBC books on a number of nursing areas were outdated, so journal article access was key to making evidenced based decision making.

As for throwing ideas unrelated together, from my perspective, I see the ideas as related. RNs are paying increasing levels of fees for less services and in addition paying legal fees for both the Union to sue the ARNBC and the ARNBC to defend themselves against the BC Nurses Union. All costs are covered by RN and NP members. You can listen to the ARNBC point of view presented in the links within the article.

As nurses work in more autonomous positions and private practices, access to journals are key.

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The original article submission had links throughout the article linking to all statements and their references and webpages. I'm not sure how they got removed? This was done to verify info within this article. I tried to post another reply with all the links. I will wait and see if it gets published.

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Hi,

Unfortunately, when this article was published all the links were removed or didn't translate properly. This is too bad because they backed up the statements and provided further reading and learning.

I used Ontario just as one example. It would be too big of an article to list all provinces and details of all contracts, fees etc. I listed the details and links for BC because in my own circle of nurse friends many were not understanding of how aggregate limits work. Many of the RNs in private practice were not aware of the details of their practice coverage. It is often recommended to buy additional insurance on top of the CNPS insurance. I found out after taking a poll of a group of 50 nurses in private practice that many did not fully understand the coverage details.

I'm unfamiliar with LPN coverages or fees.

Again, I see a greater overall picture of financial mismanagement: less services despite increasing fees and using member fees to launch and defend lawsuits between our own professional bodies.

I utilized CRNBC's library services regularly both as a private practice nurse, or when working for non-profits and as a nurse under a health authority.

Links missing from article:

About CRNBC

Library

ARNBC | Association of Registered Nurses of BC | ARNBC Updates

Knowledge-based Practice

ARNBC | Association of Registered Nurses of BC | About ARNBC

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