By Kurtis Doering

Sask. registered nurses seek regulator action

Oct 7, 2014 | 7:08 AM

About 700 of the province’s registered nurses (RNs) gathered at the Saskatoon Inn Monday to tell their regulatory body to uphold and protect their profession.

This special meeting of the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association (SRNA) came after the release of an initial draft for updated bylaws governing licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Some RNs worry that this update will expand the scope of practice for LPNs, thereby encroaching on the work RNs do.

RNs have a higher level of education than LPNs, but typically cost the government more to hire.

During Monday’s meeting, many told the SRNA council that the role of RNs is vital to patient safety, and wanted to know what the board was doing to protect and uphold that role.

Others criticized the council for not disclosing to membership their knowledge of the changes the Saskatchewan Association of Licensed Practical Nurses (SALPN) was making before the information became public.

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“We do realize how serious those issues are, but perhaps we just haven’t communicated it to them,” SRNA council president Signy Klebeck said after the meeting.

“Operationally, we have been meeting with SALPN since the beginning of August,” SRNA executive director Karen Eisler added. “We had two meetings before it became a public issue, since then it’s been… a facilitated discussion with the ministry.”

Membership voted overwhelmingly to pass two resolutions: 

1) That the SRNA write a letter to the province expressing opposition to the draft SALPN bylaws, and;

2) That the SRNA promise to uphold the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Act of 1988, particularly section 24 which states “No person, other than a [registered] nurse, shall engage, with or without hope of reward, in the practice of registered nursing.”

Eisler said the SNRA had already sent a letter to the ministry of health opposing the bylaw changes, though she admits their stated reasons were broader than those raised by membership Monday.

The leadership also agreed that stronger communication with members, as well as the public, was needed going forward. That includes a clear framework of the role RNs play in various areas.

“Because it’s not just registered nurses and licensed practical nurses that have overlapping scope,” Eisler said. “Social workers have some overlapping scope with registered nurses… paramedics do, physicians do, pharmacists do, so yeah… I think it’s an exiting time to open that dialogue.”

-with files from News Talk Radio’s Bryn Levy

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