Bonavista nurses protest working conditions

Nurses at a northeastern Newfoundland hospital took their beefs with management outdoors Thursday, with a public rally drawing attention to working conditions and patient care.

More than 15 nurses waved placards outside the Bonavista Peninsula Health Centre to protest what their union calls excessive overtime and unreasonable working conditions.

"In the past 48 hours, I've worked a total of 36 hours," said Sherry Abbott, a casual employee, who says she and other nurses are exhausted.

"I've only had a couple of hours sleep. I've probably had about four hours sleep altogether. And this is the way we've been running. … There's just no relief there."

The Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union said patient care at the Bonavista hospital, as well as a nearby nursing home, is in jeopardy because of tough working conditions.

As part of a protest, the Nurses' Union says its members there will no longer handle administrative work — from retrieving patient records to answering the phone — during late-night shifts, because there are not enough workers to tend to patients.

Union president Debbie Forward said the union has been told its members could be disciplined for refusing the work.

The issue of the Bonavista nurses was raised in the house of assembly Thursday.

Health Minister Ross Wiseman said Bonavista is one of the locations where Eastern Health has had difficulty in recruiting new nurses, although he noted that the authority added new financial incentives last year.

Wiseman said he will meet with the NLNU during the next week "to discuss some of the issues that they think are important, that we need to be addressing in the short term."