Alberta LPN

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Hi Everybody! I am not new to AllNurses, although this is my first post. I will be attending Norquest College this Sept for the full time practical nursing program. I am set to graduate on the spring of 2009. I was wondering if anyone has gone to Norquest and would like to share their experiences. I am especially interested in the clinical part of it. Also, does anyone here work as an LPN in Edmonton? What do you think of it? Where do you work and how much do you get paid? I hope someone can answer all of my questions. Thanks!

Capital Health is recruiting 600 nurses to work as LPN from the Philippines. What can you say about this?

What are you trying to say? That it would discourage the pay of LPN's?

may not seem right but it is true that capital health will be in the philippines next week to recruit 600 to 700 nurses. it is an awfully large number for a single recruitment event. weeding out the nurses that aren't ready for placement in your hospitals is quite difficult. i myself am astonished by this number and the staffing shortage you have that this implies.

Capital is not looking at hiring international nurses as strikebreakers. They went to the Philippines looking to hire nurses - RNs or LPNs. CARNA was not willing to go and assist with testing or licensing. The CLPNA was. As a result, nurses who might otherwise have been licensed as RNs were tested and if passed, were licensed as LPNs.

Also - and I am not trying to pick a fight, but I believe that it is an urban myth that LPNs in Manitoba joined the Nurses union, and as a result suffered massive layoffs. My understanding is that in Manitoba (like Nova Scotia, but unlike most Provinces) LPNs and RNs have always been, and continue to be in the same union. The start rate for LPNs in Manitoba by fall will be $2.00 higher than in Alberta - and there re no dangers of layoffs. Certainly in the 90s there were lots of layoffs - but they affected RNs and LPNs.

At the CLPNA convention this year, Linda Stanger, Executive Director discussed the trip she and the ED of CARNA made together with Capital Health to look at the education of the BScNs in the Phillipines. According to her a decision was made between CARNA, CLPNA, and the CH that several of the nursing programmes looked, at over there, were more comparable to the two year PN diploma here in Alberta. The decision was made to allow these RNs to be registered by CLPNA and work as LPNs while upgrading their education to Canadian RN standards. Many of the nurses at Convention felt it was CARNAs way of dumping untried nurses on CH without being responsible for them. (and for what it's worth, a couple of been found to be lacking in basic nursing knowledge and people skills and already the excuses are being made for them: culture shock, different level of care expected, give 'em time to get their feet wet.) But how many units should "orient" them? Norquest was supposed to do an intro to Canadian Nursing time with them before they hit the hospitals.

Nurses of both levels working on their units are worried that we will be stuck with them because of the cost of bringing them here. Let's face it, bad nurses or poorly trained nurses are everywhere in the world and can't be blamed on one country. We've seen more than a few recent UofA grads that may have got their licence but shouldn't be working.

Sounds like you've been reading the debate on VAX, Edmontonian. From what has been said, it's not an urban myth. AUPE has the details.

It's true...Capital Health will be hiring 600+ registered nurses from the PI to work as LPN this coming July 17-23.

I was recruited last Nov 2007, the initial position promised to us was to be a GN, $25/hour. During contract signing, I was astonished that we will be Auxilliary Nurse and was offered $15+/hour. I accepted the job offer since our education is not sufficient to be a GN in Alberta. While waiting for LMO, they sent us another contract as LPN; enrollment at NorQuest College and taking the CPNRE.

Thanks Fiona59 and the rest of you guys from this forum, we are LEARNING a lot. We appreciate the information.

Two things:

1. There is no such thing as an auxilliary nurse in Alberta. A LPN in this province is responsible for their own practice and works to a very high skill set.

2. The starting wage under the expired contract is $17and change. Add in shift premiums and a shift could work out to nearly $21/hour depending on if you are working a weekend night.

The contract is currently under renegotiation and we just have to wait it out for the new rates.

One thing is that really annoys LPNs in Capital Health is the fact that UNEs make more than we do, have smaller patient loads and fewer skills and the fact that we wind up teaching these employed students how to be nurses when they are hired to work during their time off from university.

"1. There is no such thing as an auxilliary nurse in Alberta. A LPN in this province is responsible for their own practice and works to a very high skill set."

Well put. What I have found is that many RNs are not aware of this - they believe that the RN is responsible for the practice of the LPN on their unit. This is simply not the case.

It does not help though that the bargaining unit is both LPNs and NAs, and is called "auxiliary nursing care" and the bargaining unit for RNs is called "direct nursing care."

This is why I said LPNs and RNs should be in the same unit - we are both doig dirct nursing care.

2. The starting wage under the expired contract is $17and change. Add in shift premiums and a shift could work out to nearly $21/hour depending on if you are working a weekend night.

The contract is currently under renegotiation and we just have to wait it out for the new rates.

I heard that AUPE has reached a new agreement - from what I heard there is a 10% "market adjustment" then 5% in the first year, 5% in the second and 4.5% in the third years and 4.5% in the third year.

I think that brings the start rate up to about $20.68 an hour - and the top rate will be more than undergrad RN.

AUPE has an offer much like what you've said on the table. The information packs are in the mail currently to members. It has NOT been accepted so we are still working under the terms of the old contract.

The 10% makret adjustment really isn't all that much when you consider the amounts paid to RNs as a bonus under their last contract.

Factor in that a raw, basically unskilled UNE starts at nearly $24/hour and the offer isn't that great.

UNA and CARNA have left a bad taste in many LPNs mouths with their wonderfully offensive billboards and prints ads which state that the only quality care is from a "registered nurse".

I remember seeing a letter in the Journal from the Director of the Reg. Psych Nurses Assoc. pointing out that quality care also came from Alberta's Reg. Psych Nurses and LPNs.

The third and fourth years are 4.5% or cost of living in Alberta, whichever is greater.

[quote=edmontonain;2958761

Also - and I am not trying to pick a fight, but I believe that it is an urban myth that LPNs in Manitoba joined the Nurses union, and as a result suffered massive layoffs. My understanding is that in Manitoba (like Nova Scotia, but unlike most Provinces) LPNs and RNs have always been, and continue to be in the same union. The start rate for LPNs in Manitoba by fall will be $2.00 higher than in Alberta - and there re no dangers of layoffs. Certainly in the 90s there were lots of layoffs - but they affected RNs and LPNs.

I spent time lurking around clpnm.ca. and came up with this little gem:http://www.lpnam.com/content/. The 2007 position paper should make people think. LPNs pretty much removed from the OR and Dialysis. Where was their union when this was happening? Certainly not protecting the LPN membership.

It pretty much sums it up. The union protects the RNs at the expense of LPN positions, to the extent that it appears that positions lost in the early '90s are still filled with RNs.

Sorry I couldn't make the links work but Adobe seems to hate my computer.

I think all that shows is that there were layoffs in the 90s in Manitoba. As there were in most Provinces. Certainly in Alberta the UNA union only protects RN and Psych Nurse positions - because they only represent RNs and Psych nurses.

Maybe we can just agree to disagree on this one.

Do you think that the AUPE deal might not pass?

It showed that OR and Dialysis jobs for LPNs were almost eliminated and that RNs are still in many jobs formerly held by LPNs.

The LPNs and the RNs were in the same union and look at who was protected.

Let's just say, the LPNs I work with are not happy at all with it. I've heard rumours that housekeeping isn't happy with it either.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

As someone who lived in Manitoba from 1986 to 2002, I can tell you that this is not totally accurate. MNU has represented 97% of nurses - RNs, LPNs and RPNs for more than 30 years. When the province started targeting the LPNs as expendable, Vera Chernecki as president of MNU was very vocal in her and MNU's opinion that the government was making a huge mistake. She fought hard to keep LPNs at the bedside and to protect their incomes and benefits but wasn't as successful as she would have liked. I went to school with 50 LPNs who felt they were being forced to become RNs, some of them already in their fifties and dreaming of retirement, because the government and American consultant Connie Curran had decided they weren't good value for the money. They needed an income and saw this as the only way. The province closed the educational programs and laid off the majority of LPNs across the province. Vera was soon proven correct and the government ate crow.

"Thirdly, to improve the use of available nursing resources, and as a result of

intense lobbying by the MNU, the government began a reversal of the Tory policy

of LPN deletions and directed RHAs to change the staffing mix within health

facilities to allow more flexibility in hiring practices, such as adding more LPNs to

the mix. The MNU viewed the re-introduction of LPNs into facilities as an

affirmation of the important role LPNs play in the delivery of health care."

I was one of about 800 nurses who marched to the Legislature on March 15, 1999 carrying an umbrella to tell the government that we were tired of singing in the rain while they sat on their "rainy day fund". It was an amazingly uplifting experience. In May 2000, I was involved as a staff member and unit representative in an independent assessment of the working conditions and patient safety issues on the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital. The committee found for the nursing staff and more than two dozen recommendations were implemented. In 2005 I was a guest of the president, Maureen Hancharyk, at the MNU 30th annual general meeting. I found the MNU to be a very responsive and responsible union; UNA is not even in the same league.

The history of MNU is one of inclusion and fairness. This might provide some insight into events in Manitoba since the formation of MNU in 1975: http://www.nursesunion.mb.ca/about-us/history.html

It's a good idea, but with the amount of money they are spending on their contracts etc, why don't they just look under their nose and offer programs to lpn's doing bridging programs? :twocents:

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