Date: 2021
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Sheila Berrisford began nurse training at Grande Prairie Regional College and then completed her training at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton in 1988. In 1989 she began her career with Alberta Health Services, which to date has included work in general surgery, medicine, general systems ICU, endoscopy, and Health Link. She joined the latter in 2017 after an assault by an improperly sedated patient reduced her ability to do bedside work. She notes the pervasiveness of patient assaults on nurses, especially in emergency departments, and how COVID has worsened matters. Even Health Link nurses have experienced a pandemic-induced increase in abusive and threatening interactions.
Berrisford experienced the bumping that was common for nurses during the Ralph Klein cutbacks. Her job was deleted and she assumed someone else’s job in a different area because of seniority. The understaffing of the Klein years reduced opportunities for decompression for nurses required to maintain mental health. She regards the UCP’s cuts as worse than the Klein cuts for senior nurses since they have already borne years of work stress. She, like many nurses who are approaching the point of a full pension, is thinking of retiring early, in her case in 2024.
Keywords: Alberta Health Services; Assaults on nurses; Bumping of nurse positions; COVID impact; Grande Prairie Regional College; Health Link; Ralph Klein cutbacks; Royal Alexandra Hospital; Understaffing of nurses: UCP cutbacks
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See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta