Licensed practical nurse Prabh Dhillon has felt appreciated for her work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

NATIONAL NURSES WEEK

Kamloops nurses feeling appreciated during National Nurses Week, BCNU calls for more PPE

May 13, 2021 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — Prabh Dhillon is a licensed practical nurse who works at The Hamlets in Westsyde. She, like many other healthcare workers, has been putting herself on the line to help others during the pandemic.

“When COVID started, it was very stressful for each one of us,” she said. “We were working as frontline workers and we’re in line to have more exposure to it and we’re going back to our families.”

It’s National Nurses Week, but people like Dhillon have felt the love for nurses and healthcare workers throughout. It makes her even more proud of the work she’s done in the last 14 months.

“I think we’ve been recognized all through it. We have had parades from the RCMP, fire departments outside our building with sirens. When this started, I was in the window watching everybody waving at us, and actually it brought tears to my eyes.”

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However, National Nurses Week is also an opportunity to highlight some of the shortfalls during COVID-19, including an ongoing shortage of personal protective equipment in B.C.

“I think it’s shameful that we continue to have challenges with personal protective equipment and accessing this equipment,” BC Nurses Union President Christine Sorensen told CFJC Today over Zoom. “There was a failure to plan for a pandemic and we know that the warehouses were bare, shall we say. The government has had well over a year to manage to resource enough supply to fill those storage cupboards.”

She added, “We now have Made in Canada supply networks for PPE, yet I still hear from nurses all across the province who don’t have free, unfetered access to the personal protective equipment they need to keep themselves safe.”

The BCNU has seen premature retirements from senior nurses — as well as recently-graduated nurses changing careers — from burnout due to the pandemic. There is many more nurses needed.

“I think what nurses are simply asking for is achievable. They’re asking for reasonable workloads. They’re asking for enough nurses in this province to be able to care for the patients, not only of today and in the future,” noted Sorensen.

TRU pumps out between 80 to 90 nursing students a year, but the nursing program simply can’t keep up. Both the university and BCNU are asking the province to fund more spaces.

“There’s a needs, there’s a desire, and we’re having conversations about what would it take for us to do it successfully,” said TRU Dean of Nursing Ravi Srivastava. “With something like nursing, it’s hard. It’s not just bringing them in for the classroom education — and we do have the labs, which is great — but then you also need to think about the practical — and do we have the spaces and do we have the supports in the system?”

While nurses have been heroes of the pandemic, they are asking for more resources, so they can do their jobs that much better.