Nurses deserve to be valued and respected beyond National Nursing Week |
May 10th to 16th marks this year’s National Nursing Week. Friends of Medicare would like to take this opportunity to recognize the instrumental role that nurses play throughout every aspect of our health care system—a role that has been amplified and become all the more vital as we battle the disastrous consequences of a worldwide pandemic.
This week, we would be remiss if we did not recognize the sacrifices nurses and other health care workers have had to make. More than a year into this pandemic, Canada's health care workers continue to be pushed to their limit on the front lines day after day, putting their own lives at risk for the sake of Albertans’.
Nurses, and all of our vital front line workers, deserve more than empty platitudes and meaningless shows of recognition this week—they deserve to know that their crucial role in our public health care system is truly valued, they deserve safer, sustainable working conditions, and they deserve certainty that once this pandemic is over that their jobs will not be eliminated as part of this government’s short sighted cuts.
The best recognition and celebration after all that nurses and their colleagues have endured this past year would be for this government to publicly rescind their plans to eliminate health care workers’ jobs as soon as this public health emergency is lifted. Nurses have been there for us, and now it’s time that we are there for them by calling on our government to show our nurses the respect that they deserve.
In commemoration of Nursing Week 2021, Friends of Medicare extends our thanks to all of Alberta’s nurses for the selfless sacrifices you’ve made throughout this health care crisis and beyond. We greatly appreciate you all!