Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1519854
Happy Nurses Week! save the cake. Instead, we'll take an ounce of respect, a slice of work/life balance, and a dollop of dignity, generously sprinkled with sufficient staff. is recipe yields one new contract. Together, we can Create radical change. I am a nurse. Radical change starts with retention. It looks at ways to eliminate violence in the workplace. Radical change invests in the public system rather than for-profit private care. It's about investing in the mental and physical wellness of staff, creating safe nurse-patient ratios and auditing culture. That's the future. That's radical. Scan the QR code with your smartphone camera to view MNUnity: I Am A Nurse or visit manitobanurses.ca Pictured to the right is a visual excerpt from 2021's Save the Cake Campaign that Manitoba Nurses Union ran for National Nursing Week. This campaign consisted of a variety of visuals that depicted the need for more serious measures to show staff appreciation. It had to be. If you have ever needed emergency care, you're aware of the excessive wait times that have become commonplace. If you love someone who's a nurse, you know the increased patient-to-nurse workloads; you might also know the ethical dilemmas that weigh down staff aspiring to offer better care. If you stay abreast of local news, you'll be very familiar with the fact that staff experiencing violence while at work is on the rise. Mandating and a lack of control over one's work/life balance are major issues that must be dealt with. So too is the need for better mental health supports. Nursing today is a profession rife with struggle and lean on resources. And yet, healthcare is a Canadian cornerstone, arguable a human right. Three years ago, in honour of National Nursing Week, the Manitoba Nurses Union asked Employers to 'Save the Cake!' Instead, we said we'd rather take an ounce of respect, a slice of work/life balance, and a dollop of dignity. We asked for a system generously sprinkled with sufficient staff. Three years later, we are plagued with an infiltration of for-profit care and a continued dwindling of resources. This is a serious problem for many reasons, but especially because the public system is essentially competing against itself to solve the critical nursing shortage, we find ourselves in. Now, not only are we fighting to retain and recruit, but with a high turnover in management and a new government, we are fighting again for dollars to be properly allotted into the public system. What we are left with is a morally injured workforce that is post-pandemic exhausted and begging for help. By working our nurses to the bone, literally treating staff like salt mine ponies, with the weight of more patient care on their backs and fewer hours in a day to recover physically, we are burning out our most precious resources, our people, at an alarming rate. It's time for radical change. It's time to invest in retention. It's time to make nursing a coveted job once again. It's time to support our new grads instead of paying out nearly 1M hours in overtime and agency use to for-profit private businesses. This must stop today. This week, we celebrate National Nursing Week and the nurses who've found the strength to keep going, those who continue to care for Manitoba patients. This week we need to start to think about caring for the people who care for Manitoba's patients. This week we are calling for radical measures to stop the degradation of our public healthcare system and those who hold it together. Because the same shift, different day mentality is not only shameful, it's not Manitoban.● Time for radical change A look at the profession of nursing in 2024 BY BRANDI JOHNSON The state of our health care system is in need of dire repair. The health of the public system was widely discussed during our last provincial election and for many, a campaign commitment from those running for office. 5 SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2024