Hundreds of nurses and nursing students sporting red toques and placards lined the downtown street near the Sheraton Hotel for a rally aimed at raising awareness of staffing practices the RNU says are dangerous and put RNs and patients at risk.
The rally was held near a monument erected in memory of nurse Ethel Dickinson, a volunteer nurse who tended to wounded Newfoundland soldiers during the First World War.
Registered Nurses’ Union (RNU) president Debbie Forward laid a wreath at the monument in honour of Dickinson, who died in 1918 while treating patients suffering from the Spanish flu.
Written on the red toques were the words, “More full-time RNs can save a lot.” Some of the placards read, “Patient safety comes first,” and “Make health care a priority.”
