Nursing in focus

 As we begin our second full week on strike, I am left running out of interesting things to say in this blog.  According to the intended academic schedule, which still holds for courses led by non-UMFA members, this is fall term break. Which means what little traffic there is in and out of campus will be that much more sparse. What's the point of picketing when there's no traffic?

But a-ha! UMFA is composed of scholars, i.e. relatively smart people, and they have anticipated this problem.  This week, in addition to online and 'virtual picketing' activities, they are moving the regular picket lines to political hotspots.  Yesterday was the constituency office of the Premier, today was the Minister of Mental Health, Wellness, and Recovery. I forget who tomorrow's favored target will be, which is just as well since I'd just be spilling the beans.

In keeping with directed protest in the direction of the Minster of MHW&R, a lot of us are concentrating our information on the 'looming' nursing crisis in Manitoba. Hundreds of FTE nursing positions are presently vacant in Manitoba. The need was so great that the province required the College of Nursing to double its intake of students, with concomitant increase in instruction and practicum hours. Which of course requires qualified people to teach teach and oversee them, and hopefully minimizing endless fruitless searches for replacements who leave for more money, better conditions, and less stress.

We know that nursing is a difficult and often thankless profession. Burnout is high. During the pandemic, nurses and nursing students were even more overworked (and in greater personal danger) than usual; and frankly if there's one group you want not foregoing sleep or food, it's your front-line nursing staff.

So let's hear it for nurses, and those who train them. Let's hear it for front-line nurses who risked physical and mental health keeping the rest of us safe and alive during the pandemic, in spite of not having a contract for over four years (finally settled this past October). Remind the province that interference in collective bargaining is both unlawful and antithetical to keeping high-quality nurses on the job and satisfied. Remind the province that quality health care, as well as quality education, is going to cost money, and if they want nurses in particular, it's worth investing in the system that produces them. Remind the university administration of the same thing, and that it's their duty to act in the best interest of the university and the community.