Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions Policy Directive: H1N1 Outbreak and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (ARCHIVED)

Archived

On behalf of our 158,000 members and associate members, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) has been working in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Health Canada over the past two years on policy development around personal protective equipment for health care workers. Some progress has been made, and we recognize the difficulty of any pan-Canadian organization to achieve consensus across scientific communities and federal/provincial/territorial tables. CFNU (i.e. provincial nurses unions), however, has a legal, ethical and moral responsibility to protect members and their families. We believe that the guidelines provided by PHAC (April 29, 2009) within the document Interim Guidance: Infection Prevention and Control Measures for Health Care Workers in Acute Care Facilities do not go far enough to protect health care workers, especially at the first point of contact with the health care system.