“I had to be diligent as it was the longest and hardest fight I have ever had.” Donna Keown
targeted by management,” she recalls. However with the encouragement of her stewards, Keown says she was able to keep up the effort. “My stewards were there whenever I needed them. They were my guides through this process.” “When I had my meetings in management’s office for Step 1 of the PR process, I took a steward. If it was not resolved, I pushed the process and the PRFs were heard and discussed,” recalls Keown. “Some solutions were trialed, but did not always resolve the issues,” she notes. “For the on-call, scope and recovery safety issue, I kept filing new PRFs and readdressing them at the professional responsibility committee meetings.” “I had to be diligent as it was the longest and hardest fight I have ever had in a department to ensure patient and nurse safety,” admits Keown. She says that the breakthroughs that were achieved encouraged others, and soon co-workers began signing her PRFs or filing their own. Keown continues to further her nursing skills and knowledge, and has taken
courses in post-anesthesia recovery and emergency care. Always interested in learning and keeping her skill base fresh, she reports choosing to take a term position in pre-surgical screening at UHNBC until September 2017. She plans to return to the ambulatory care unit in the fall. In the meantime, she is encouraged for her colleagues there and says the arduous process she spearheaded has resulted in the creation of two full-time vacation RN relief lines and better morale on the unit. “There is always a second RN in the endoscopy suite now and the RN on-call over the weekend has the ability to call someone in to help them,” she reports. “It’s used pretty much 99 percent of the time.” Keown describes herself as an activist but, despite being asked, she did not become a steward until December 2015. She now sits on UHNBC's professional responsibility process committee. “It is hard work,” she admits of her efforts, “but it works – you have to be committed to completing the PRFs”. •
PROFESSIONAL VOICE These members are just some of BCNU’s professional responsibility process advocates who are ready to help. From left: Pauline Barlow (Coastal Mountain region), Debera Willis (Thompson North Okanagan region), Heather Picklyk (OkananganSimilkameen region), Ravi Kochar (Fraser Valley region), Denise Waurynchuk (East Kootenay region), Lesley Edora (Central Vancouver region) and Barbara Erickson (North East region). Consult the list below for the contact information of the PRP advocate in your region.
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REGIONAL PRP ADVOCATES Vancouver Metro Andrea Rauh andrearauh@bcnu.org
Okanagan Similkameen Heather Picklyk heatherpicklyk@bcnu.org
North East Barbara Erickson barbaraerickson@bcnu.org
Fraser Valley Ravi Kochar ravikochar@bcnu.org
Simon Fraser Cameron Ward camward@bcnu.org
Central Vancouver Lesley Edora lesleyedora@bcnu.org
South Fraser Valley Catherine Clutchey catherineclutchey@bcnu.org
Shaughnessy Heights Manpreet Mann manpreetmann@bcnu.org
South Islands Daphne Wass daphnewass@bcnu.org
Pacific Rim Ray Hawkes rayhawkes@bcnu.org
East Kootenay Denise Waurynchuk denisewaurynchuk@bcnu.org
RIVA Sara Johl sarajohl@bcnu.org
Coastal Mountain Pauline Barlow paulinebarlow@bcnu.org
West Kootenay Glenna Lynch glennalynch@bcnu.org
North West Louise Weightman louiseweightman@bcnu.org
Thompson North Okanagan Debera Willis deberawillis@bcnu.org
UPDATE MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2017
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