B.C. nurses rally in Vancouver for safer working conditions

Nurses with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) held a rally downtown Wednesday afternoon, calling for safer working conditions and better healthcare for patients.

BC Nurses’ Union President Adriane Gear says many nurses deal with regular threats of violence. She says while VCH has a “zero-tolerance policy” for violence or threats, the policy is rarely followed through satisfactorily.

“That is a provincial policy, and yet, nurses are expected to just deal with it in some instances,” said Gear.

Gear says they want managers to follow through on a security plan when a patient is deemed to pose a threat, and says nurse safety needs to be placed at the same level of priority as patient care.

“We have to hold patient care and nurse safety at least equal value. And for nurses, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like their their safety and is not a priority,” said Gear.

The union is also asking for greater use of relational security officers and a renewed curriculum for training to address de-escalation and violence prevention strategies. Gear says the union was rallying for issued that extend beyond Vancouver and the Vancouver Coastal Health authority.

“This is something we hear from nurses around the province, that they’ve kind of given up on reporting in some instances, because nothing changes,” said Gear.

She says improved safety will help with recruiting and retaining more nurses in the province.

“If a nurse doesn’t feel safe, if a nurse doesn’t feel respected, they can go work anywhere there’s there’s a global nursing shortage. And so if we want nurses to come to this province, if we want new, graduated nurses to take jobs in this province and to stay here; if we want internationally-educated nurses to come to this province, then we need to create welcoming, healthy workplaces where safety is paramount.”