Alberta Health Services

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Sep 29, 2009

I hear that! You watch or listen to any of those telethon/radiothon fundraiser testimonials and it's always "the doctors", "the doctors at the XYZ Hospital", "the wonderful doctors"... But what's worse is the hosts always lead them into talking about "the doctors" and gloss over the fact that there are nurses, RTs, PTs, OTs, pharmacists and aides who all contribute to the miracles worked in XYZ Hospital! And shows like House and Grey's Anatomy don't help because there are no nurses on those shows. Everything done in those hospitals is done by a doctor. We've gotta change that!

jaylily · Sep 29, 2009

I'm from Alberta but am doing my BN degree in a different province. I've just been placed on a waiting list so that if things change and the AHS decides to hire new nurses I'll be contacted. I would love to return home, but to be honest, even if things did change there and they started to hire new employees, I can't say I'd be too tempted to do it. There's just too much insecurity with what Duckett's doing right now.

Do they have a plan as to what they'll be doing once the new hospital opens in the south? Especially seeing as how they just closed 350 beds?

RGN1 · Sep 29, 2009

Oh they have a plan alright, they are just choosing not to share it. They are laying the foundations though by trying to divide nurses & public opinion first!

I hope it doesn't work, I don't know one pt who hasn't left my unit without full respect for the nursing care they recieved & that hasn't mentioned what an eye opener it was as to what nurses really do.

That's what we need, poeple with real experience to speak out on our behalf before it's too late. There have been plenty of letters from people just like that in the Calgary Herald &, to be fair, most of their articles have been on our side too, so far.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Sep 30, 2009

What I think will happen with the new hospital in Calgary is that they'll have a huge, highly-publicized grand opening to appease people but it will sit empty for several months. Ed Stelmach will tell the public that it's open and that the ORs are running full steam, when the place is echoingly empty. Then when the story is exposed for the falsehood that it is, they'll move a couple of wards full of patients from Peter Lougheed and Foothills over there and close the vacated beds. But it isn't expected to be finished until 2011; if you use the Mazankowski yardstick, that means more like 2015. By then anything could happen.

Fiona59 · Sep 30, 2009

And don't forget about Sherwood Park and it's white elephant that seems to have disappeared

bscn_rn_10_years · Sep 30, 2009

It really is so confusing that we are closing beds..but you know they are blaming it on lack of nurses and no money to pay "the outrageous" salaries...... they want the public to be outraged at the nurses because then it is our fault that they are waiting 8 or more hours in the ER to be seen.....they really do have a plan ...don't they? I say that private healthcare is only a hop and skip from us...which is so sad....if they (the public) could only figure it out before it is too late....lets hope!

Fiona59 · Sep 30, 2009

Nah, I've said it before, the average Albertan voter likes to vote Conservative. Then they whine about the cuts and swear they'll never vote them in again.

Wait three-four years, hold an election, repeat the cycle.

UNA fought hard for some of their contracts and got their wages increases. Unfortunately the wonderful Alberta public doesn't understand that NOT all nurses are paid the same. I've lost count the number of times I've been told I'm lucky to be earning $40/hour (my age has a lot to do with that assumption). I then point out I'm an LPN covered by a different contract and usually it's the Charge that makes that figure when they factor in charge pay, shift premiums, etc.

UNA might want to be a bit more educational in their next contract.

It always makes me laugh when I'm told they couldn't do my job for any amount of money.

Hey, Dr. D. want to come to work with me next week? Stand next to me? See how long it is between bathroom breaks? How it feels to be verbally badgered by the visitors, have the shoes soiled because an incontinent little old lady doesn't make it to the toilet in time and then have to clean the little old lady, the floor, the shoes and keep an eye on her because it's after 5pm and there are no housekeeping staff (but wait they don't do bodily fluids) and the NA is off sick and Staffing can't fill the slot AND keep an eye on four other patients??

Oh, didn't think so.

linzz · Sep 30, 2009

Oh please no private health care. I have always been a strong advocate for public heath care and after my most recent experience with private health care, I am an even stonger advocate for public health care. That doesn't mean I am in support of the politicians in Alberta and Ontario.

bscn_rn_10_years · Sep 30, 2009

I too am a strong supporter for public healthcare, but I am so sure that they have a plan to privatize out healthcare system. I also have a question....who hired mr d :jester: ? And why would they hire someone from out of the country to run a very complex health system....how would he know anything about OUR system? Crazy .... and why didn't we as employees have a say as to who would be in charge? OH well..nothing we can do about it now...just hang on tight for the ride of a career. :) :confused:

Fiona59 · Sep 30, 2009

But... he has a PhD in Economics!!!

I still say Fast Eddie is a shill for the insurance companies and is probably getting huge kickbacks from them

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Sep 30, 2009

I've been on this "ride of a career" before... I graduated in 1994! It took me four years to finally get into a permanent position - I started as a casual and then went from one short-term temporary position to another for the whole time. It was incredibly stressful. I'm not overly worried about losing my job this time around but I am worried about not wanting it anymore!

Frustrated, when have we grunts ever had a say in who runs the show? A couple of years ago our unit was hiring a new patient care manager after having been without one for about a year. Things were just beginning to be dysfunctional then and the administration decided there should be two staff nurses on the panel doing the interviewing. No one knows for sure how the two who were chosen were chosen. Suffice it to say that one of them spoke to others and got their input into what kinds of questions she should ask. The other did nothing but show up. They were astounded to discover that there was only one candidate being interviewed, one of our supervisors who was universally disliked; we knew she was in the running but we didn't know she was the only horse in the race. So Nurse 1 asked the tough questions and got vague or sarcastic responses, Nurse 2 sat there saying, "I don't understand the question" and admin handed the candidate the job. In the 18 months she held the reins (more racing analogies so as not to mix my metaphors!) she systematically destroyed morale and set the stage for a mass exodus of staff. We now have a very inexperienced group of nurses taking care of critically ill patients and high turnover. We're all waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe Dr. D is it.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Oct 1, 2009

Well, I am rendered speechless. I just had a look at the career postings and discovered that of the NINE full time positions posted for my unit, seven of them are open to the public. Maybe the reason for that is that they require a minimum of 1 year of PICU experience and since we're the only game in town, with a high turnover and no former employees willing to return to the inferno they had no choice but to approve external postings. (FYI: We finished orientation of six new staff at the beginning of the month and seven more started orientation the next week. That represents 15% of our regular complement of staff...)