Re: “Aides part of the solution to better patient care,” Nov. 30.
It is with a bit of frustration that I’m writing in response to some of the letters written since the piece came out from the Hospital Employees’ Union.
The B.C. Nurses’ Union is not against health-care aides and welcomes them as part of the care team. The problem is that they are not an addition, they are replacing licensed practical nurses and registered nurses on units already stretched to the limits with heavy workloads.
One letter-writer says aides are what keeps clients in their homes. In the hospital setting, the clients are the sickest of the sick (because the wellish ones have been discharged). That is not the clientelle that the aides are trained to care for. Nurses, as the regulated body, are the ones responsible for the care of in-house patients and are not able to use the aides as backup for care, except for activities of daily living in that setting.
And to the retired physician who had the patient experience — don’t accept the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s portrayal of the utopia that the model is supposed to be. Go visit the nurses and care aides working the model and you’ll find that it is unsafe for the patients.
Jo Salken
Pacific Rim Regional Chair
B.C. Nurses’ Union
