The union representing New Brunswick nurses says more consultation is needed before health care changes are made.
It comes after the premier halted plans by Horizon Health to make changes to public health and mental health and addiction staffing.
Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said they were only made aware of the changes on Wednesday, the same time as staff.
“In the presentation, it talked about utilizing vacancies and integrating other designations into those vacancies that were all registered nurse vacancies, particularly in the public health sector,” Doucet told our newsroom.
“It was different for mental health and addictions. There was other designations they were looking at integrating into that care model.”
But Doucet said the crux of their issue is that employees were told the union approved of the changes, even though they had yet to be consulted.
That lack of consultation prompted Premier Susan Holt to ask Horizon Health to stop the changes “to ensure that all those who could be impacted have their concerns heard and that decisions are made in collaboration with those working on the front lines.”
RELATED: Premier tells Horizon to stop nursing role changes
Horizon Health said in a statement that it was in the “early stages of a transformation” aimed at strengthening the way it delivers public health and mental health and addiction.
“Do I see a role for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, crisis intervention workers? Absolutely, but what does that look like?” questioned Doucet.
“Coming to the public health nurses or the mental health and addiction nurses and other designations to say, ‘we’re making all these changes and this is what we think is best’ is not a collaborative or a consultative change for transforming public or mental health.”
Public health staff, social workers oppose changes
Meanwhile, organizations representing public health staff and social workers in the province have come out against the changes being proposed by Horizon Health.
The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) and the Public Health Association of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (PHA-NBPEI) said Horizon’s plan would reassign 90 per cent of public health nurses to hospital settings and replace them with licensed practical nurses.
Ian Culbert, the executive director of CPHA, said this would erode the province’s public health capacity and jeopardize the delivery of essential community-based services, adding that public health nurses are the first line of defence.
“They prevent illness, contain outbreaks, support families, and reach people who are often left behind. Reassigning them to acute care settings may ease short-term staffing pressures, but it will compromise the province’s ability to respond to long-term health needs,” Culbert said in a news release.
Public health nurses are specially trained in population health, immunization, communicable disease control, harm reduction, school health and health promotion, said the organizations.
“We value the essential contributions of licensed practical nurses and recognize the importance of a balanced nursing workforce, but public health nurses bring specialized skills and experience that cannot be replaced overnight,” said Culbert.
“Just as you wouldn’t substitute a family practice nurse for a surgical nurse without consequence, reassigning public health nurses without a plan to preserve their expertise risks undermining core public health services.”
CPHA and PHA-NBPEI said they welcome the province’s decision to pause the reassignment of public health nurses and their call for meaningful consultations.
It is a sentiment echoed by the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers, which called the proposed staffing changes “ill-advised and uninformed.”
“Social workers have specialized training to deliver mental health and addiction services and play a critical role in the care and well-being of New Brunswickers,” Executive Director Miguel LeBlanc said in a news release.
“From what we were recently told, the changes would result in a diminished role for social workers in the treatment of mental health and addiction services at a time when there is an increasing number of New Brunswickers requiring these services.”
Social workers have the proper training and skill sets to help improve mental health and addiction services, said LeBlanc, adding that more people will be at risk without proper care from trained individuals.
