NUPW: Ease the nurses

Nurses are overworked and stretched to the limit and should be working a 35-hour week.
This recommendation has come from acting deputy general secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW)?Roslyn Smith.
At a one-week symposium held at the union’s Dalkeith, St Michael headquarters, celebrating International Nurses Day yesterday, Smith called for a reduced work week for nurses employed at the Queen Elizabeth, Psychiatric and Geriatric Hospital.
“Nursing is a very stressful profession. They have to do so much in providing health care every day and many times working more than 40 hours. It is really very tough on them without proper compensation.
“We believe they should work a reduced work week. It is nothing more than they deserve.
“They want to keep the nurses’ level going, but at this rate, they are going to suffer from burnout,” Smith said.
“So far, we haven’t met with the Government to look at the salary and wages proposal and therefore you cannot expect persons to be working more hours for less.
“The nurses are working hard and not reaping the rewards. There are other issues we want to look at, but in the interim we are looking to make life a bit more palatable for them,” she said.
Smith also called on Government to give International Nursing Day a bigger profile.
“Government can look at having everyone under one roof such as [at] the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in the future. Government should be more proactive in advancing the cause of the nurses.
“The day should have more meaning instead of letting it go by like any other day. They can play their part in putting nurses back on the map where they used to be,” she said.
The symposium with the theme, Closing the Gap: Increasing Access and Equity, dealt with issues such as the Nurses Act, nursing shortage and nursing safety.