If LPNs join the BC Nurses Union does that mean RNs will control our scope of practice?

SCOPE OF PRACTICE: is set by the BC government – not your union!

• Scope of practice is set by the Ministry of Health (MOH) through the Health Professions Act – not BCNU or HEU.
• HEU finally admitted that BCNU doesn’t control scope of practice. A recent HEU publication says “the MOH is the only body that can establish the broad parameters of LPN practice.” [Making Our Profession Stronger, Page 5]
• The College of Licensed Practical Nurses’ of BC (CLPNBC) regulates LPNs. They develop the practice standards that flow from MOH regulations and protect the public through licensing.

What has the Hospital Employees Union done for LPNs?

Their website brags about wage increases but the truth is they have increased wages at the expense of hacking back our benefits, holidays, long term disability, extended health, and lowered the starting wages for new LPNs. And may we not forget the 15% wage cut back at the same time we were given significant new responsibilities. HEU has a long history of losses for LPNs and no amount of spin doctoring can hide that fact.

HEU fought hard at the labour board to argue that we do not deserve the right to have this vote. It is OUR RIGHT. The HEU does not own LPNs and if we feel we are not being represented by them it is OUR RIGHT to choose to leave. The Labour Board supports this and so does the law.

What’s next?

LPNs, ballots will be mailed to you from the Labour Board in just over a week from now. Please fill it out and send it back immediately. Click here to see the video that LPNs in BC have made for this historical moment in nursing history.

Tired of the endless HEU calls to your home? Call them and tell them you want no more calls from them. 604-438-5000 or 1-800-663-5813 (toll-free)

Michelle Devia, LPN
Founder, The LPN Cafe

Ask almost any newly graduated Licensed Practical Nurse in BC if they have had difficulty finding a job, and you’ll likely get the same answer: yes. So why is that? Don’t we have a nursing shortage here in BC?

A sample of the nursing shortage portrayed in the media

When I graduated in 2003 the buzz was that there was a nursing shortage in the works in BC and that health care jobs – LPN jobs – were in high demand. To me, this seemed to be true, especially since I was hired right away in the orthopedics unit in the hospital while I was still in my preceptorship, and my classmates had similar experiences as well. A couple of months later I applied at another hospital and was hired along with 9 other LPNs at the same time. It seemed to me like there was definitely a huge demand for LPNs.

Back then there were two big reasons why work was so abundant for us. The first was that many of the new Practical nursing programs were introducing medication administration, full head to toe health assessment, pharmacology, and taking and transcribing orders. Hospitals were just beginning to require their LPNs to work to the expanded scope of practice and that meant that there were many positions available. The second reason is that in 2003 there were about 6,000 LPNs practicing in BC. Today there are approximately double that number, 12,000; there was simply a demand that outweighed the supply.

There continued to be a need for LPNs for a few years afterwards, and it seemed like there was a new Practical Nursing program being offered at schools that seemed to appeared on every block overnight. And because the ‘nursing shortage’ was portrayed both by the media and skilfully sold to students by college program advisors. This increased the number of LPNs being pumped out into the nursing world at an astronomical rate.

It didn’t take long for the supply of LPNs to outweigh the demand for LPNs and I noticed a few years ago that nurses started contacting me, desperate for suggestions on how to get a job. This unfortunately has continued to today. Hospital jobs are now practically impossible to get and it may take months to find a casual position at a care home as regular part time and full time positions are very difficult to come by.

There have been rumours in the past few years about hiring freezes put in place by the health authorities. I’m not sure if this is true or not but certainly they haven’t been hiring as many LPNs as in the past and I’m aware that the health authorities are under ever increasing pressure to meet staffing budgets. Take the safecarenow.ca initiative by the BC Nurses Union for example. According to BCNU, an additional 2,000 more nurses need to be hired in this province in order to achieve safe staffing levels in our health care system. I think it’s safe to say that we need more LPNs and RNs to be hired in order to provide the safe care that our patients deserve.

So what will happen in the future? I think it would be wise to keep in mind that there are about 3 times as many RNs in BC than LPNs so there will always be a greater demand for RNs, however I believe it won’t be long until the demand for LPNs will increase mainly because the scope of practice looks to be increasing soon for LPNs. As long as employers utilize LPNs to their fullest potential, I see more opportunities to be available to LPNs in the future.

Michelle Devia, LPN

BCFT: presidentsoffice@bctf.ca HSA: webpres@hsabc.org APBC: bronwyn.barter@apbc.ca HEU: mkirwan@heu.org ; heu@heu.org

To:
Reid Johnson, President
Health Sciences Association of B.C.

Bronwyn Barter, President
Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. (CUPE Local 873)

Susan Lambert, President
B.C. Teachers’ Federation

April 30th, 2012

I find your letter, sent April 27th to Licensed Practical Nurses in BC, to be incredibly offensive and disrespectful. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse and I am stunned at your total disregard of our issues and complete lack of understanding of our situation. You have no business telling LPNs to do anything, especially when it comes to a situation as this that clearly you have very little knowledge about.

Licensed Practical Nurses – thousands of them – want to leave a union that does not and will not adequately represent them and this is their democratic right to choose to do so. This right you absolutely should not interfere with, and the fact that you have tried, has me to believe that your blind loyalty to the Hospital Employee’s Union is purely based in your own selfish interests and not the interests of nurses in BC.

Your attempts to influence union solidarity have in fact made LPNs incredibly angry towards you as a result. I strongly believe it would be in your best interest to respect the voices of thousands of nurses instead of losing their respect and support. Licensed Practical Nurses deserve your sincere apology for your ignorance on this issue.

Regards,

Michelle Devia, LPN
Founder, The LPN Café
www.lpncafe.ca
An Online Community for Licensed Practical Nurses