Date: 2021
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Doris Proulx grew up in the Metis settlement of Buffalo Lake in a family of 16 children. Her parents were hard-working but poor; her mom was the community midwife. Proulx studied nursing and became an LPN at Lac la Biche Hospital. With her children in school, Proulx, then in Edmonton, took the Royal Alexandra Hospital RN program while working as an LPN elsewhere. Upon graduation, she worked in emergency at the Alec and later in ICU/CCU at the Grey Nuns before working in emergency at the Northeast Community Health Centre.
As an Indigenous nurse, Proulx observed and challenged unequal and culturally inappropriate treatment of Indigenous patients. She believes that Indigenous groups have succeeded in getting hospitals to become more culturally sensitive. She tries to mentor as many new Indigenous nurses as she can. She commends UNA for emphasizing “equal rights and equal treatment” as well as “fairness in work in the workplace.” Proulx joins many pickets and demonstrations organized by UNA. Having lived through the cutbacks of the Klein and Kenney periods, Proulx underlines the need for adequate staffing levels. In the interview, she provides grim information about the heart-breaking and backbreaking work that COVID has expanded for nurses.
Keywords: COVID; Cutbacks—Klein era; Grey Nuns Hospital; Lac la Biche Hospital; Metis nurses; Northeast Community Health Centre; Nursing—understaffing; Royal Alexandra Hospital; UNA—demonstrations and rallies; UNA—People of Colour and Indigenous Committee
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Indigenous Labour in Alberta; Systemic Racism in Alberta; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta