Invest in nursing and respect nurses’ rights to secure global health
Dear members and supporters,
Each year, National Nursing Week gives us the opportunity to thank and celebrate Canada’s nurses. You are smart, dedicated, compassionate and courageous professionals facing demanding work at even the best of times. After more than two years of working through the challenges of a pandemic, I know it’s retention and recruitment actions you are looking for — thank you is not enough.
You have been shouldering an incredible weight caring for patients through the worst of storms, while many of you work understaffed, making do with overtime and going without vacations. Your strength and resilience must be commended, but I know it cannot continue to be a band-aid solution to a health care system in crisis.
The nurse staffing shortage is a crisis unlike anything we have seen before. As nurses’ unions, we have been sounding the alarm for years about the impacts of decades of chronic underinvestment on adequate staffing and support. Now the pandemic has exposed the deep cracks in our health care system.
As Canadians are reminded of our immense value during National Nursing Week, the CFNU is building on this opportunity and working with governments across the country to give you the respect you deserve.
Our message is being heard — there is no health care without health care workers.
As the largest group of health care providers, you are the heart of our health system. No words are enough to express gratitude for your contribution and the care you give to patients. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and pledge to keep fighting for the respect you deserve.
In unwavering solidarity,
Linda Silas, CFNU President
