The Save Public Health Care Rally on July 11 proved to be a hugely successful event, one that was thoroughly covered by local and national media.
Thanks to all those MNU members who were able to come out and attend the event, including from Worksite 5 at St. Boniface, Worksite 10 at HSC, Worksite 1 Winnipeg Public Health, and more!
Please click this link to check out CityNews Winnipeg’s coverage of the rally.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) launched its newest campaign, called Complete the Recovery, a few days before the rally and we are incredibly proud that MNU member Christina Woodcock was one of the 10 nurses featured from across Canada.
Being part of this campaign involved answering very personal and direct questions on her experiences as an intensive care unit nurse in Brandon. As you know, speaking out takes courage. We are immensely grateful to Christina for opening her heart and sharing the rawness of what many of you are experiencing, too.
Here’s one of her quotes that was included in this campaign:
“We feel guilty for leaving our colleagues in an unsafe situation, so we stay, and we continue to work in that unsafe situation, and then experience the guilt of then having left our families, another soccer practice without Mom in the seat,” she said.
“So really the scales are tipped in a way that isn’t healthy, and it creates a lot of moral distress for our staff and our nurses.”
In her interview, Christina also spoke about how hard nurses work, “you stay so far over your hours, and you work the mandatory overtime and the voluntary overtime. You give more of yourself than you have to give, and you do all of it – and you’re still not able to provide care to the standard that you hold yourself to.”
She called on governments and employers to work collaboratively on solutions, including providing young nurses mentorship, that would keep more nurses within the public health care system.
The CFNU has as its goal that this campaign be shared as far and wide as possible in Canada, so if you could share it to your networks, such as friends, family, colleagues and social media, that would be much appreciated!
To read more about Christina’s journey, please visit this link.
Additionally, this link will take you to the page with all 10 nurses and their stories.