Date: 2008
Location: Lethbridge
Profiles: Linda Bridge served as a casual bed utilization nurse and evening supervisor for Chinook Health Region. She authored two books on her nursing experiences, focusing on self-care for nurses. Trained in Edmonton’s Misericordia School of Nursing she was earning less than a Safeway cashier in 1988. Bridge was vice-president for UNA Local 120 from 1992 to 1995, and president from 1995 to 2004.
Barb Charles, a 31-year UNA activist, was a supervisor at Chinook Regional Hospital before joining management in 2008 because of a bad back. She graduated from Galt School of Nursing, Lethbridge, in 1976. Involved in the birth of UNA, she served as treasurer, vice-resident, and president of Local 120.
Bridge and Charles lament reduced apprenticeship experiences in the move from RN training from hospitals to universities. They discuss lack of emotional support for nurses. Both recall the 1988 strike efforts to get proper schedules for nurses and to end situations of nurses working alone. They praise UNA for having won the professional responsibility clause, notification of schedules, pensions for married nurses, and overtime pay. Both denounce 1990s cuts in Lethbridge beds from 500 to 250, privatizations, and replacement of RNs with LPNs to get cheaper labour.
Keywords: Apprenticeship for nurses; Casual bed utilization nurse; Chinook Health Region; Cutbacks; Galt School of Nursing; Misericordia School of Nursing; Privatization; Professional responsibility clause; Replacing RNs with LPNs; Self-care for nurses.
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See also: Occupational Health and Safety; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta