Year: 2007
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Pauline Worsfold was president of the Staff Nurses Association of Alberta when that union and the United Nurses of Alberta merged. She played an important part in the negotiations to unite all Alberta nurses into one union in 1997. Worsfold discusses those negotiations and she indicates that the merger strengthened nurses in collective bargaining. Previously employers played off one union against the other.
Worsfold began her nursing career at the University of Alberta Hospital in 1981, working for five years in general surgery before beginning a long career in the recovery room. She observes that over time both operating and recovery rooms sped up their work. The result is that patients are discharged “sicker and quicker.”
Worsfold has been a voice for nursing and healthcare solidarity beyond her role in merging the two nursing unions. She became active in the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions in 1981 and helped bring UNA into the CFNU after the merger. Membership means that Alberta nurses network with their counterparts elsewhere to discuss strategy. By the early 2020s, Worsfold was its national secretary-treasurer. She was also chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, founded in 1979, of which Friends of Medicare is the Alberta component.
Keywords: Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions; Canadian Health Coalition; General surgery; Merger of UNA and Staff Nurses Association; Networking among nurses; Recovery room; Speed-ups; Staff Nurses Association of Alberta.
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See also: United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta