NSNU and NSHA Leaders Provide Progress Report on Workplace Safety

January 24, 2018

Today NSNU president, Janet Hazelton joined with Carmelle d’Entremont, VP of People and Organizational Development for the Nova Scotia Health Authority to provide a progress report on recommendations made in the 2017 report, “Improving Workplace Safety in Nova Scotia’s Community Emergency Departments”. The report was drafted by a working group convened in late 2016 to tackle the ongoing issue of violence in health care workplaces, co-chaired by Janet and Carmelle

Taking questions from media, they discussed the work that had been done to date, and highlighted the value ofu and employers working together toward common goals. Over the past year much has been done to lay the groundwork for a safer health care system.

“We are pleased with the progress made on the recommendations and the commitment from NSHA to making our workplaces safe,” Janet said.  “We all agree that there is still work to be done, and I look forward to the day when nurses, and other health care workers, can go to work and not be concerned about facing workplace violence.”

A full progress report can be found on the NSHA website at http://www.nshealth.ca/files/nsha-workplace-safety-progress-report-0118pdf.

October 21, 2016

Premier Stephen McNeil and NSNU president, Janet Hazelton, announced a working group to examine safety protocols in community emergency departments. The announcement came in response to a troubling incident at Soldier’s Memorial Hospital earlier in the month. The working group was tasked with developing recommendations to improve community emergency department safety for employees, patients, and visitors.

The Minister of Health appointed the following organizations to the working group: Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), Co-Chair; Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union (NSNU), Co-Chair; Department of Health and Wellness; Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union; Canadian Union of Public Employees; Unifor; Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia; Department of Labour and Advanced Education; AWARE-NS; RCMP; Paladin Security; Cape Breton Regional Municipality Policing Service.

The group examined the existing safety protocols in community-based emergency departments in Nova Scotia and sought to identify areas for improvement based on research and best practices. The group’s report identifies 12 recommendations that will help ensure the right measures are in place so that staff, patients and visitors of community emergency departments remain safe.

On Thursday, January 19^th, Janet Hazelton held a webinar to introduce the committee’s recommendations to NSNU members, and then on Friday, January 20^th, she joined the Premier and her committee co-chair to announce the report produced by the working group.  A video of the webinar can be found below, and the full report is available at this link: http://novascotia.ca/dhw/publications/Community-ED-safety-protocols-report.pdf.

If members have any questions about the report or its recommendations, please email them to NSNU.Office [at] nsnu.ca (subject: Workplace%20Safety%20Committee%20Report) (NSNU[dot]Office[at]nsnu[dot]ca).

Webinar Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRPD1XRa_BQ