Silas: Canada’s leaders need to roll up their sleeves and finish the job.
June 27, 2023 (OTTAWA, ON) – As Canada’s premiers prepare to meet at the upcoming Council of the Federation next month, nurses are launching a campaign urging provinces to fix the nursing shortage and end the health care crisis plaguing the country.
“The health care crisis is not solved yet, Canada’s leaders must finish the job– fix the nursing crisis and complete the recovery,” said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU). “Nurses know what this means – running themselves ragged working unsustainable hours to give patients the best care they can while working severely understaffed and overcapacity. This is the daily reality nurses face across the country.”
This new campaign brings frontline nurses’ experiences to the forefront of the health crisis conversation, and aims to engage the premiers and public around solutions. It will include local and national newspaper ads, bus shelter ads, billboards, social media engagement and digital advertisement.
“It’s crucial that amongst the politicking we don’t lose sight of what is happening on the grounds in our hospitals, our community care settings and across health care. This is what our campaign aims to do,” said Silas. “This is a critical moment for our health care system. Bilateral deals were a good start, but nurses and their patients are looking for concrete change. Health care workers are facing yet another summer of incredible pressure without the resources and support they need to provide safe patient care.”
Silas pointed to key retention initiatives in British Columbia and Nova Scotia as good starting points for solving staffing shortages.
“There are known solutions to the health staffing crisis, and they are within reach. Now it’s about working together to act on proven, evidence-based solutions that we can spread and scale to start making a real impact and end this crisis,” she said. “It’s time for our leaders to roll up their sleeves and get the job done.”
Silas will be at the Council of the Federation meetings, accompanied by provincial nursing union leaders, to engage directly with premiers around solutions at a health care policy panel hosted by the CFNU on July 11 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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The CFNU is Canada’s largest nurses’ organization, representing 250,000 Canada’s frontline nurses in every sector of health care – from home care, to LTC, community and acute care, including nursing students – and advocating on key health priorities and federal engagement in the future of public health care.
For more information, please contact Adella Khan, media@nursesunions.ca, 613-807-2942