Date: 2005
Location: Canmore
Profile: Pam Little’s health career took various directions, but during 20 years of nursing in Banff, she focused on developing best practices for rural nursing. That led her to obtain a university degree in Nursing and to combine her experience and education to become an educational specialist for rural nursing.
Little’s nursing career began in Manitoba, where she graduated from a site nursing program in psychiatric nursing in 1975. She learned the value of union membership when the Manitoba Nurses Union, which formed that year, won a good wage increase for their members. Little earned her RN in Alberta in 1984 and worked in Calgary in psychiatry before moving to Banff. She participated in the 1988 UNA strike. Her memories of that strike include the inspiration that UNA president Margaret Ethier provided to members and the public support the nurses received. She recalls the solidarity of the nurses, including organizing childcare for members, and potluck dinners that aided those unable to afford sufficient food purchases during the strike. For her, the retention of Professional Responsibility Committees and health and safety gains made the strike worthwhile. Little laments the Klein cuts, and the imposition of charges on patients for appliances.
Keywords: Banff; Margaret Ethier; Manitoba Nurses Union; Professional Responsibility Committees; Psychiatric nursing; Ralph Klein cuts; Rural nursing; Solidarity in nurses’ strikes; UNA strike, 1988.
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See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta