Year: 2012
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Alexis Ranger was a UNA activist, including during the period during 2009 and 2010 when Dr. Stephen Duckett, the first president of Alberta Health Services, was making huge cuts to healthcare staffing on behalf of the Progressive Conservative government of Ed Stelmach. Born in Welland, Ontario, Ranger came to Alberta when she failed to find work as an apprentice in sheet metal plumbing in Ontario. She and her husband opened a garage in Edmonton. Ranger then earned a Nursing degree and began work at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton. Daughter of a union carpenter, Ranger agreed to be a ward representative for her unit within UNA Local 79 after attending a UNA AGM. Working on the vascular unit, she was keenly aware that Duckett’s cuts to both RNs and LPNs were making it impossible for nurses to fulfil their obligations. She made use of Professional Responsibility Committee reports to highlight resulting deficiencies in patient treatment. Ranger notes that the union fightback caused the government to pull back on some of its cuts. Ranger indicates that she has a great interest in alternative therapies and hoped to do a Masters degree with an emphasis on such therapies.
Keywords: Alberta Health Services; Alternative therapies; Grey Nuns Hospital; LPNs; Professional Responsibility Committee; Sheet metal plumbing; Stephen Duckett; Vascular unit.
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See also: United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta