OPSEU/SEFPO is showing solidarity with the Ontario Nurses’ Association on Wednesday, December 7 at Hamilton General Hospital!
Join Registered Nurses in their fight to stop Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) from replacing nurses in a scrub nurse role and from cutting RNs from operating rooms!
Register at the ONA event page.
HHS has adopted a cheaper model of care to deal with the surgical backlog which puts patient safety at risk and cuts nurses from operating rooms.
Patients need nurses to advocate for them when they are most vulnerable. How a patient responds under anesthetic is unpredictable. Patients need nurses who have specialized knowledge, qualifications and are highly skilled to handle medicines being administered by the surgeon, and respond when there are emergencies in surgery (like unexpected bleeding), retract skin and tissue, collect and prepare specimens or biopsies, and maintain a safe sterile surgical environment to prevent infections. Nurses are needed in a scrub nurse role. Surgical patients need the right provider, providing the right care at the right time.
HHS is replacing the scrub nurse with an operating room assistant. Currently, a scrub nurse and a circulating RN works alongside an operating room assistant in operating rooms. All three positions are in place to ensure a high quality of patient care is met. Under this cheaper model of care, scrub nurses would be cut from operating rooms and replaced with another operating room assistant.
Should they continue with this plan, the next step would be to eliminate a circulating RN.
If this surgical model of care is implemented in Hamilton, it will spread province-wide. This will result in a increased risk to patient safety in surgeries across Ontario.
The solution to the crisis in public hospitals is not to replace RPNs or RNs – it is to staff up and give health care professionals the necessary support to care for patients.
Registered Nurses need your support. Stand with them as they fight for a high standard of surgical care in operating rooms.
Dress warmly and wear any reflective clothing you might have. Attendees are encouraged to bring a flashlight and glow sticks will be provided.
Bring your noise makers and homemade signs! There will also be signs available for you.
This is a kid-friendly event and hot chocolate will be provided to all. Bring your family, friends and neighbours. Community members are encouraged to attend.