Slide1: Award Winning Author and Journalist Nursing Tainted Blood Charities Homecare Humour Public Speaking About the Author Contact Selected Stories www.AndrePicard.com


Slide2: Critical Care Canadian Nurses Speak for Change André Picard


Slide3: "I lived in an era when patients died because they didn't have the money to pay for medical services, and I'm proud to say that I played a part in ending that injustice, in creating a system for everyone. It's said quite often, but I don't think Canadians truly appreciate what they have. Medicare was the best thing that ever happened to this nation; it defines us as caring and compassionate people. And no one contributes more to the health of Canadians than nurses." Helen K. Mussallem Former executive director Canadian Nurses' Association


Slide4: "There has been an awakening of the collectivity that extends far beyond nursing leadership. Nurses have been pushed around in every way imaginable in recent years. They've been treated like dirt, not like professionals. And they've had enough.” Ginette Lemire Rodger President Canadian Nurses Association Ottawa


Slide5: "When you do this job, you soon realize that it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for each patient. They want to be treated like their delivery is the most important one that has ever been done, and my job is to try and make them feel that way." Debbie Gauthier Labour and delivery nurse Regina General Hospital


Slide6: "In public health, nurses do a lot of work in the background, behind the scenes. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it works, that we make a real difference in people's lives.” Carol McDonald Tobacco information division Ottawa ‑Carleton Public Health


Slide7: "As a nurse, I truly believe in our public healthcare system, but I'm struggling with the real philosophical dichotomy that arise from reality. If it's truly cost-effective to do this (operating an in-house clinic for employees) -- and it is or the company wouldn't do it -- then why doesn't every worker in Canada have access to this kind of help? If it's going to save the health system billions of dollars every year, why isn't there an occupational health nurse in every workplace?” Lynda Kushnir Pekrul Occupational health nurse Canada Life, Regina


Slide8: "I'm a street nurse. My specialty is working with the homeless. It's obscene that in a city as wealthy as Toronto, in a country like Canada, that such a specialty even exists.” Cathy Crowe Nurse-practitioner Queen West Community Health Centre Toronto


Slide9: "In neuroscience, we're in the business of hope. We can't cure people, all we can do is help them find hope to carry on in a different way. I don't want to push paper around. I want to be there, on the ground, in the clinic, squeezing out a little bit more hope every day.” Wendy Morrison Neurology nurse-researcher UBC Hospital, Vancouver


Slide10: "I left the hospital because I saw people during brief psychotic episodes and then released them back into nothing. I never felt like I was providing care. You have to care for people in a holistic way; you have to look at the whole person, their background and their environment. You have to understand the social determinants of health and the practical reality of their lives. You have to adapt.” Liz Evans Psychiatric nurse Portland Hotel Society Vancouver


Slide11: "I left acute care because it was so frustrating that I was burning out. We would discharge patients and see them again in two months in worse condition. We dealt with the acuity, with the crisis, but there was no disease management. It was depressing to see all these people on the treadmill when you knew they could be helped a lot more another way.” Cheryl Magnusson Clinical nurse specialist Mary Pack Arthritis Centre Vancouver General Hospital


Slide12: "Burn nurses get to know patients and their families very well over several months, and when they leave, walking on their own, you really know you have made a difference to a lot of lives." Anthony Arsenault Burn Nurse Ross Tilley Burn Unit Toronto


Slide13: "We get yelled at a lot, and I can't think of many instances where it's justified. The toughest thing to take is, right after a death, being confronted by someone yelling about a broken toe or something we can really do nothing about. We have to be very special people then. Every triage nurse has to count to ten a lot in a shift." Barbara Harris Emergency triage nurse St. John's General Hospital


Slide14: "The most important thing I do is not listening to their lungs, it's listening to what they have to say." Anne Gold Clinical nurse specialist Cystic fibrosis clinic Hospital for Sick Children Toronto


Slide15: "Grandmother might not be so handy anymore, so the telenurse becomes a substitute. Parents call about chicken pox, fever, diarrhea, the flu, all the things that you used to ask your grandmother about.” Catherine Bowness Telehealth nurse Clinidata Moncton, New Brunwick


Slide16: "You can go into a neonatal unit today and be more overwhelmed than I was 40 years ago. It's truly amazing that these little peanuts will live. But equally important is realizing that low birth weight is the single most important determinant of health. They will live, but what kind of life will it be? And once we wean them off the machines, what can we do as nurses to ensure their good health? It's not enough for us to produce excellent technicians. We have to teach nurses to think upstream.” Helen Thomas Associate professor nursing McMaster University, Hamilton


Slide17: "I think what makes us different from a private clinic is that we just don't treat the sexually-transmitted disease, we treat the heartbreak too.” Tammy Blackwell SFU Health Services Burnaby, B.C.


Slide18: "I have my beliefs and they are firmly held beliefs. But as a nurse I have a responsibility towards the client, and an obligation to respect her choice that supercedes my personal views. I do not have the right to impose my beliefs on anyone, but I have an obligation to provide the best care possible to everyone." Suzane Fournier Nurse and counsellor The Morgentaler Clinic Montreal


Slide19: "Getting nurses to pay for further education themselves is a false economy. If you want to ensure the best possible care, the system should subsidize education, like they do in the United States.” Karen Johnson Trauma nurse-educator Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto


Slide20: "The human stuff is way more important to me than the medical stuff. When you see this person in front of you who is absolutely terrified and you know you can help, that's what caring is all about. That's the essence of nursing.” Anthony Arsenault Burn Nurse Ross Tilley Burn Unit Toronto


Slide21: "Simply put, what nurses do best is recruit people and keep them coming back. When drug trials last for years and, from the point-of-view of patients, seem to do diddly-squat -- except maybe make them sick -- that's invaluable. A lot of studies would die if we didn't have nurses so involved.” Wendy Morrison Nurse-researcher UBC Hospital, Vancouver


Slide22: "Pregnancy and abortion are, to me, two sides of the same coin, two aspects of womanhood. It's a choice that most women have to make at some point in their lives: abortion or childbirth. And, you know, I don't question a woman's choice to have an abortion anymore than I ever questioned a woman's choice to have a baby. As a nurse, why would I?” Suzane Fournier Nurse and counsellor The Morgentaler Clinic Montreal


Slide23: "As funny as it sounds, you really develop a relationship with a patient on the phone. From a nursing perspective, that's really rewarding...Because patients get our undivided attention -- something you never get in the hospital anymore -- people feel we really care. That's the one thing we hear over and over again: 'You guys really care.'” Catherine Bowness Telehealth nurse Clinidata Moncton, New Brunwick


Slide24: "My patients make me really appreciate life in ways I never anticipated. They teach you a lot about making the most of the time you have. They really teach you humility.” Anne Gold Clinical nurse specialist Cystic fibrosis clinic Hospital for Sick Children Toronto


Slide25: "I've spent seven years in university. I could be a doctor but I choose not to be. If I was a physician, I couldn't walk into the room of a kid who's awake at three in the morning and say: 'Hi. How are you?' I could never be at the bedside when they take their last breath. That's the privilege of being a nurse. I know these kids. I care for these kids, in a way a physician could never dream of doing. When you realize that, why would you want to be anything but a nurse?" Kim Widger Pediatric palliative care nurse IWK‑Grace Health Centre, Halifax


Slide26: "We would love to be in every school every day. There's so much work to do. It would pay off very quickly in public-health savings, but hiring public health nurses is, unfortunately, not a political priority.” Joan Mikkelsen School nurse Central Regional Health Board Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia


Slide27: "Nursing is a very economical way of doing health promotion. If you prevent one case of fetal alcohol syndrome, if you stop one new mother from smoking, or if you prevent a major disability because a kid is wearing a bike helmet, the savings for that one child are going to be enormous, plus there are going to be positive repercussions, on the entire household and even part of the community.” Paula Robeson Director early chilhood development Canadian Institute of Child Health Ottawa


Slide28: "Society does not value what we do. It does not value caring; it values things like science and technology.” Claire Sheinman Cowan Program development manager Pediatric nurse St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto


Slide29: "I deal with sick and dying people every minute of every day. I provide health care in the context of where people live. And I fight and advocate on their behalf. If that's not nursing, I don't know what is.” Liz Evans Psychiatric nurse Portland Hotel Society Vancouver


Slide30: "Housing is one of the prerequisites of health. You can't eat well, you can't sleep well, you can't care for your health, if you don't have a roof over your head. It's a basic. As a community-health nurse, I have a responsibility to speak out when I see the makings of an acute disaster.” Cathy Crowe Street nurse Toronto Disaster Relief Committee


Slide31: "We're the ones who are there at 3 a.m. when Mom can't sleep and she has a million questions. Three or four in the morning is when you have the deep conversations about the meaning of life.” Kim Widger Pediatric palliative care nurse IWK-Grace Health Centre, Halifax


Slide32: "I think the days are gone when a nurse can say her job is forever.” Paula Robeson Director early chilhood development Canadian Institute of Child Health Ottawa


Slide33: "Let's face it; the airplane is not a good place to be delivering premature babies or defribelating...We don't want heroics, we want good nursing care.” Penny Triggs Medical evacuation nurse Keewatin Air Ltd. Rankin Inlet, Nunavut


Slide34: "What makes a good trauma nurse is the ability to make critical decisions quickly. To do that, you have to be sharp, you have to be on top of your game, and the way to do that is education.” Karen Johnson Trauma nurse-educator Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto


Slide35: "I learned more from the fifty moms in the first kangaroo-care trial than I learned in 20 years of nursing. What they told us is that hospitals have to support mothers to become mothers in spite of the technology. To me, that's what neonatal nursing is all about.” Kathy Hamelin Neo-natal clinical nurse specialist Women's Hospital Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre


Slide36: "Nurses are lifesavers in northern communities, and medevac is their lifeline to the outside world.” Penny Triggs Medical evacuation nurse Keewatin Air Ltd. Rankin Inlet, Nunavut


Slide37: "Something keeps us here and it's definitely not the money. My father always said that nurses are born, not made. Maybe he was right.” Karen Johnson Trauma nurse-educator Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto


Slide38: "There's a nursing crisis out there that impacts us every day, and it's only going to get worse.” Barbara Harris Division manager of emergency Healthcare Corp. of St. John's


Slide39: "Nurses have the knowledge base about disease and medication, and we know how other health professionals can contribute to the well-being of an individual. When we're given the ability to use these skills, it can have a real impact.” Cheryl Magnusson Clinical nurse specialist Mary Pack Arthritis Centre Vancouver General Hospital


Slide40: "I follow them through the journey. I see my clients for a lifetime. It's the kind of nursing a lot of us dream of doing...This is a good place to be nursing today. And it will be an even better place tomorrow.” Colleen Harris Nurse-practitioner Multiple sclerosis clinic Foothills Health Centre Calgary


Slide41: "I think some day people are going to look back and wonder why there weren't a lot more public-health nurses like me around a lot sooner.” Carol McDonald Tobacco information division Ottawa-Carleton Public Health


Slide42: "Nursing has been battered. The work environment has become very insecure, there's been a total destabilization that has left people reeling. Nurses are suffering this collective post-trauma symptom.” Ginette Lemire Rodger President Canadian Nurses Association Ottawa


Slide43: "At first, part-time was not a choice, it was what I could get. But I realized that I was working really hard full-time and missing my life. Nursing can be an all-consuming job if you let it. That's why there's such a high burnout rate. Now I enjoy my work more, and I enjoy my life more.” Anna-Liisa Dean Addictions treatment nurse Homewood Health Centre Guelph, Ontario


Slide44: "It's such a different kind of nursing out in the community. You really have to think on your feet -- which is really what good nursing is all about anyhow.” Christine McCarthy Community health nurse Regional Support Associates Woodstock, Ontario


Slide45: "In my business, we don't have the wonderful fanfare of trumpets and the declaration from on high of 'cured' or 'saved.' Down the hall they get that, particularly from trauma patients...What we aim for is not a miracle cure, it's to have them lead a reasonably good life. I comfort myself in knowing that I do a small part to help rebuild lives.” Fred Haines Psychiatric emergency Nurse Royal University Hospital Saskatoon


Slide46: "Heart disease affects so many people and their families that you just get drawn in. Working at the hospital getting them ready for surgery is not enough. I feel I should get involved in the community too, doing prevention work. It's just another way of using my skills, and hopefully it makes a difference.” Denise Cassan Prep nurse, cardiac Ottawa Heart Institute


Slide47: "Most people come to an oncologist's office with a lot of other issues, and they can't keep the cancer piece separate. In fact, cancer is often a very small problem next to the other stuff. It's not humane to say: 'Sorry, that other stuff is not my job.' It has to be somebody's job to care.” Beth Pelton Interlink Community Care Nurses Toronto


Slide48: "The challenge in this job is to see past the disease to the person, but when you do it's so rewarding." Darlene Orr Canadian Cancer Society Vancouver Island Lodge


Slide49: "When people say my patients are spoiled because the nurse goes to their house, or that home care is really expensive, I just laugh. I know I'm making a difference every day -- on a lot of levels." Janice Cibart Home care nurse Regina


Slide50: "There's a lot more than goes into handing a surgeon a scalpel than there appears to the untrained eye. I hand him every instrument before he asks. I know every detail of the procedure, and I study to keep up with the latest techniques. That keeps the operation going smoothly. Administrators don't have a clue about this, they think we're like robots, but the surgeons really appreciate the difference a good OR nurse can make. The nurses can make or break a transplant, there's no doubt about it.” Janet Bate Transplant nurse Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Halifax


Slide51: "It was always the same thing, cuts being made on the backs of nurses and prevention falling by the wayside. All our energy was spent fighting and it wasn't paying off. I decided I really needed to get out of the rat race.” Mary Neill Former Director of nursing Women's College Hospital Toronto


Slide52: "We go into nursing because we care for people. But now it's time someone cares for nurses.” Judith Shamian Executive director nursing Health Canada Ottawa


Slide53: "We have a consumer society. We have this idea that we don't have to take care of things; we just use them and, when they're old, we throw them away. That attitude carries over to people, to seniors. We don't want to take responsibility, we want to buy a cure. But the reality is that most injuries can be prevented, and most illnesses can be avoided, or a least well managed, regardless of age." Sonja Lundstrom Public health nurse (geriatrics) Winnipeg Community Long-Term Care


Slide54: "Look at me, I'm just a nurse -- a fat little old nurse -- and I've done this. I'm successful and I'm happy. I'm not saying it was easy, but nurses have this ability to learn, to adapt, and they have to realize just how valuable that is in the world outside the hospital.” Helene Henrichsen Nurse-entrepreneur The I.V. League Burnaby, B.C.


Slide55: "For me as a nurse, it's very frustrating to know that we turn people down because they don't have the means. It's a big flaw in the system to say that we will pay all the costs in the hospital, no matter how high, but we won't help people at all who want to spend their last days in the privacy and the comfort of their homes.” Roxanne MacLeod Palliative home care nurse We Care Home Health Services Charlottetown, PEI


Slide56: "The true value of the time a nurse spends with a child and his family is not easily quantifiable. You write in the log: 'One hour of providing support.' But those words are so inadequate. They in no way capture what a nurse has done. She may have changed the health outcome; she may have saved a life. But no one ever measures that, no one every puts it into words.” Claire Sheinman Cowan Program development manager Pediatric nurse St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto


Slide57: "Nursing homes have an image problem. A lot of nurses out there think extended care is the bottom of the heap. The saving grace is that, once they're here, those who give it a chance dramatically and quickly change their minds. This is one of the most neglected and ignored groups in society, and it's rewarding to work with them because they need you so badly.” Madeleine Shorthill Geriatrics nurse Mount Tolmie Hospital Victoria


Slide58: "When I go through my day hour by hour, it doesn't sound like very much. It's hard for a nurse to tell you what happens. It's a steady barrage, a whole bunch of little things, and they all add up to care. You're, first and foremost, a caregiver, but you're also a social worker, referee, porter, a shoulder to cry on. You can't do these things justice by writing them down in a log.” Merial Forde Geriatrics nurse Parkwood Hospital London, Ont.


Slide59: "What we aim for is a good death...When death comes, it's not like a bomb has dropped, it's more like a candle that has been blown out. When a family leaves here in peace, I know I've done a good job, I know I've made a difference.” Carolyn Adams Palliative care nurse Royal Victoria Hospital Montreal


Slide60: "Like nursing, international aid work is not about sacrifice and courage, it's about discovery and joy.” Elisabeth Carrier Red Cross nurse Chechnya


Slide61: "I think people look to nurses as people who are nurturing and non-threatening. Whether you are giving them a needle or assisting with paperwork, they trust that a nurse is going to help them in some way. Rose Reynolds Nakatsuru Nurse-researcher B.C. Medical Services Foundation Vancouver


Slide62: "Being a nurse has never been an obstacle, it's always been a door opener. It's influenced everything I've done and, to this day, there's nothing more thrilling for me than going to a clinic, say in Malawi, and watching a nurse fill in a growth chart. That nursing background keeps you grounded, it keeps you aware of what's really important in the world.” Margaret Hilson Director of international programs Canadian Public Health Association Zimbabwe


Slide63: "I have a lot of nurses who come to me these days who have been casual employees for 10 years, who juggle shifts at three or four hospitals, and they're sick of it. The way nurses are treated in Canada is appaling. You can pretend they come here for the weather or the lower taxes, but that's not true. I offer full-time, permanent jobs, with full benefits, that's why they come. They would do the same thing if you get them those opportunities in Winnipeg or Vancouver or Moose Jaw.” Linda Beechinor Nurse-recruiter Honolulu, Hawaii


Slide64: "You only have to look into the eyes of nurses to see the price they are paying. That personal struggle to maintain quality care is very real, it's very painful, and it should worry each and everyone of us because we will all need the health-care system some day." Judith Shamian Executive director nursing Health Canada Ottawa


Slide65: "We have systematically taken away the piece that is the heart, the essence of nursing -- patient care. When nurses say: 'We don't have time to spend with our patients anymore, there is something seriously wrong. How can you get job satisfaction -- and how can patients get proper care -- when you are systematically deprived of the ability to do the core of your work?” Mary Ferguson-Paré Vice president nursing Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care Toronto


Slide66: "I think lots of nurses get comfortable in their jobs and they don't realize all the opportunities that are out there.” Christine McCarthy Community health nurse Regional Support Associates Woodstock, Ontario


Slide67: "I think the system has trouble dealing with supportive care, the stuff that nurses do best. It only understands medical care, but that's a tiny part of what patients need.” Beth Pelton Interlink Community Care Nurses Toronto


Slide68: "I will not change the fact whether the patients live or die, but I will change how they cope. I will give them some control, and I think that's important to their well-being, physically and emotionally.” Darlene Orr Canadian Cancer Society Vancouver Island Lodge


Slide69: "They mean it as a compliment, but what I really hate is when I hear people say: 'She's a great nurse, she should have been a doctor.' I'm proud of being a good nurse. I don't see it as a hierarchy, but parallel professions. I'm every bit as important as the surgeon.” Janet Bate Transplant nurse Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Halifax


Slide70: "There's a magic elixir, and it's not a pill, it's giving people control and support. People who are in control are always healthier, regardless of their age.” Sonja Lundstrom Public health nurse (geriatrics) Winnipeg Community Long-Term Care


Slide71: "I'm certainly not rich. I make a little more than I would at the hospital, but I feel a lot better about it. I feel respected. I didn't feel that way as a hospital nurse.” Helene Henrichsen Nurse-entrepreneur The I.V. League Burnaby, B.C.


Slide72: "I don't hesitate to say care is good. Nor do I hesitate to say it could be improved. There are times when professional nursing input is thin on the ground, and that is worrisome. If there was a budget for more professional nurses, we could use them, and I believe that is true of all long-term care facilities.” Madeleine Shorthill Geriatrics nurse Mount Tolmie Hospital Victoria


Slide73: "The idea of working in an antiseptic, structured environment frightened me a lot more than running from bombs and struggling to find basic supplies." Elisabeth Carrier Red Cross nurse Chechnya


Slide74: "There's an inherent value in my work that wouldn't be there with widget production. I just wouldn't be excited creating widgets the way I am delivering health care...I'm not at the bedside anymore, but everything I do creates the context for direct care delivery. I'm the support staff, the facilitator, for all the really good stuff that happens out there in the hospital -- like nursing.” Mary Ferguson-Paré Vice president nursing Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care Toronto


Slide75: "It's been clear for 20 years why nurses leave Canada. It's work conditions. Period. It's not anything else. If work conditions were good at home, if nurses were respected the way they are here, I wouldn't recruit a soul.” Linda Beechinor Nurse-recruiter Honolulu, Hawaii


Slide76: "There is not, in government today, at a policy level, a clear understanding of just how hard it is to be a nurse. I think it's ethically irresponsible for that situation to continue. It's intolerable.” Judith Shamian Executive director nursing Health Canada Ottawa


Slide77: "We are so potentially powerful and influential, it isn't even funny. If we can focus and hone that energy, it will be a beautiful thing. We will truly be a political force to be reckoned with.” Ginette Lemire Rodger President Canadian Nurses Association Ottawa


Slide78: Critical Care Canadian Nurses Speak for Change André Picard


Slide79: Award Winning Author and Journalist Nursing Tainted Blood Charities Homecare Humour Public Speaking About the Author Contact Selected Stories www.AndrePicard.com