Union slams elimination of 27 nurse positions

Twenty-seven nursing positions have been eliminated at two Edmonton hospitals as part of a reorganization the province’s nurses’ union claims replaces skilled nurses with lessskilled care providers.

But Alberta Health Services says the changes are designed to ensure health-care providers are doing work they’re trained to do and ensure the right staffing mix in hospital units.

Twenty-three registered nurse positions and four licensed practical nurse positions in four medical and surgical units at the Royal Alexandra and University of Alberta hospitals are being eliminated. Sixteen health-care aides and two team leaders are to be hired in their place.

“What we have is an intentional ‘workforce transformation.’ And some transformations are not good and I would suggest this is one of them,” said United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith.

“These are huge tertiary facilities with complex cases and we’re reducing the number of providers and diluting the mix of what remains. That has implications for the safety of patients and will impact the quality of care.”

The news comes about a month after 12 nurses were laid off at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, to be replaced by 12 other nursing employees. In the Edmonton area, layoffs have also occurred at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and in community health.

AHS says about 400 job openings for nurses are currently posted across the province and the number of positions has grown four per cent since February. Nurses affected by the changes could be rehired in new positions if interested, according to the organization.

But Smith said job openings are “not the point.”

“You can’t say you’re going to eliminate registered nurse positions ... and not have implications on the quality and the services that are delivered.”

The changes at the hospitals are part of a “team-based model of care,” said Deb Gordon, chief nursing and health professions officer for AHS.

“It means having the right mix of health-care providers caring for a patient and their family and ensuring that every care provider is working to their full skills and abilities doing the work they’ve been educated and trained to do.”

She insisted the changes are “not about replacing registered nurses or licensed practical nurses with health-care aides or other types of staff. It is about adjusting the mix of staff.”

Health-care aides may have completed a four-month course at a community college, or may have gone through on-the-job training, Gordon said. They are responsible for activities such as bathing, feeding or getting patients sitting up.

She said this type of reorganization is vital to ensure patient needs are met now and in the future.

“Recruitment alone will not enable us to maintain a workforce that can provide the level of care that Albertans expect and deserve in the future. We need every nurse. This is about moving nurses around in the system and making sure they’re in our high priority areas of need, not about having less.”

Growing areas of need for nurses include home care, mental health, and obstetric services, Gordon said.

The plan is being rebuked by Donna Wilson, nursing professor at the University of Alberta who researches health services. She finds it “unbelievable” such a plan would be implemented in large hospitals that handle tough medical cases.

“In a surgical unit, people’s lives can change in five minutes. You can have a complication that comes up and if you don’t have someone that recognizes those complications and quickly demands a doctor come, or do some first aid immediately, you can have a stroke or bleed to death.”

Wilson said registered nurses may spend time bathing patients, but in the process might discover problems such as bed sores.

There are currently 5,670 healthcare aides employed by AHS, compared with 6,575 licensed practical nurses, said Mark Wells, spokesman for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees that represents aides. Aides earn a maximum of $23.75 per hour.