Still Not Enough Nurses

The Ontario Nurses Association Local 20 - North Bay General Hospital Bargaining unit officially kicked off Nurses week tonight with a city proclamation and their annual walk.

Mayor Victor Fedeli says this year reading the proclamation took on a whole new meaning in contrast to the previous year.

“In October when my father-in-law had a heart attack, the nurses in the ICU, the help that they offered, to first of all my father-in-law and secondly my wife and her family, I’ve never seen that kind of care and compassion.”

“And I don’t think our family would have gotten through it without the care shown by the nurses in the ICU, so it was a very special proclamation for me to actually read out today and understand,” says Fedeli.

The week runs from May 8th to May 14th and the nurses have planned a week of celebration to honour the work nurses do in our community. Spokesperson for the Nurses, Leslie Manary, says the week is an opportunity for Nurses to be in the spotlight.

“I think it’s important for us as nurses to celebrate our profession. I think by in large because we’re kind of known as the helping profession and sometimes the medical part of our profession gets all the glory and nurses are kind of more behind the scenes.”

“Kind of working the night shift, and I think it’s really valuable that we celebrate ourselves,” Manary says.

The nurses walked from City Hall to both sites of the NBGH in support of ONA's province-wide campaign 'Still Not Enough Nurses', and Manary says North Bay is not feeling the pinch quite as tightly as other areas where staffing issues are concerned, but that it is still a major focus.

“I would venture a guess that we’re a little bit better off, we do have vacancies at the hospital and I know that in the community sectors they’re vacancies as well.”

“Our association has lobbied to keep healthcare public, it’s fine for the government to say they want to fund 10,000 nurses, but the reality is there are not 10,000 nurses out there to be hired.”

The ONA Local 20 represents Registered Nurses employed at North Bay General Hospital, VON North Bay, North Bay Parry Sound and District Health Unit, Au Chateau, Mattawa General Hospital, West Nipissing General Hospital, Casselholme as well as six bargaining units in Kirkland lake, New Liskeard and Englehart.