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RNs casualty of hospital budget crunch

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN heidi@northernlife.
BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

Ontario Nurses Association Local 013 president Anne Kennealy is concerned that at least five of her members working in ambulatory care at Sudbury Regional Hospital (SRH) have been offered early retirement packages.

The hospital will hire a different classification of nurses - Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) - instead of Registered Nurses (RNs) to replace her members, she said.

RNs usually have a university degree, whereas RPNs have a college diploma.

She said the early retirement offers are all part of SRH?s government-approved ?recovery plan.?

The hospital has until 2007-2008 to balance their books, and is trying to find efficiencies in its system to meet this target.

?These nurses are highly trained and know their jobs very well. They?ve been doing those jobs for a number of years. We don?t think that it?s in any way the right thing to do,? she said.

There are about 1,000 nurses working at the hospital, and approximately 100 are eligible for retirement.

Offering early retirement to the RNs and replacing them with RPNs is better than outright layoffs, said Kennealy.

But she still wishes it wasn?t happening.

Measures taken under SRH?s recovery plan to reduce costs have forced nurses to work harder than they ever have, said Kennealy.

?They?re definitely overworked. There?s not enough funding. We have areas where there are very high acuity and high complexity of patients. It?s a
struggle every day to be able to get everything done,? she said.

SRH senior vice-president Joe Pilon has confirmed early retirement packages have been offered to some RNs in ambulatory care, and they will be replaced by RPNs.

Although the hospital is partly making the move to save money, patient care will not be adversely affected, he said.

Other hospitals use RPNs in ambulatory care, and they do a good job.

?We looked at the level of care that patients need. Registered Practical Nurses are nurses. They?re skilled...We determined here that it?s entirely appropriate and good care to use RPNs in the ambulatory care centre,? he said.

?Part of our responsiblity as a hospital is to use our resources as prudently as we can. We have a recovery plan that we?re committed to, and this is part of that recovery plan process.?

Pilon also said there are areas other than ambulatory care where they are thinking of replacing retiring RNs with RPNs, but naming these areas would be premature.

?It?s just something that hospitals are continually looking at - the care needs of the patients versus the people who provide the care. It?s not an uncommon practice. In fact, it?s a responsible action that hospitals need to take, because you want to be able to use your resources as best you can,? he said.

In a February interview with Northern Life, Sudbury Regional Hospital CEO Vickie Kaminski said the hospital would be offering many early retirement packages to reduce staff numbers as they move towards one site.

?What we?ve done is look at the age of our workforce, planned retirements...we?ve taken that all into account and said...if we?re going to reduce our workforce, can we do it through attrition, so we don?t actually have to lay people off?? she said.

?We expect that overall that yes, there will be a reduction in the number of people that have full-time jobs with SRH, but we shouldn?t be seeing
layoffs associated with it.?



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