Nurses Experiences

Barbara Brookins, PEINU

Barbara has been an active Union member since graduating in 1990 from the AJM School of Nursing in Moncton, NB. She has been President of the PEI Nurses' Union since 2007. As an advocate for nurses, she hopes to support members so that they can maintain a healthy work-life balance. Barbara is married and has a daughter, Kyla, and a son, Eric.

Retention and recruitment of nurses in the province is essential to the maintenance of the PEI healthcare system. However, changes in technology, advancement in medical knowledge, and increased patient acuity require ongoing training and development. How to achieve this in a small province with limited educational opportunities is a challenge Barbara Brookins, President of the PEINU, has been dealing with. It was obvious to Brookins that the ability to upgrade qualifications without leaving the province was essential to both the nurses themselves and the system that depends on them daily.

"It has been an ongoing struggle for our nurses to obtain advanced training/certifications in the critical care areas. It is difficult enough to get time off to attend local workshops, so going out of province is not possible for the majority of nurses," states Brookins.

"I was aware of the Work Skills Initiative project in Cape Breton that brought a critical care training program there from Halifax and felt a similar project on PEI would be a great opportunity for our nurses," said Brookins.

Now with the support of the CFNU Research to Action Project, there will soon be the implementation of a PEI-based Critical Care and Emergency Nursing Program.

The development of this program will allow nurses the ability to acquire new or improved skills without having to leave PEI and increase retention and recruitment of emergency and critical care nurses. Facilities will benefit from more qualified and higher skilled nurses, consistency in training, improved recruitment and retention, and succession planning. The province will see improvements in areas such as utilization of health resources, consistency in training and service delivery. Patients and the public will benefit from improved quality of patient care. "This is one of those rare times when you find a solution that is an absolute win for everyone: the nurses, the province, the patients and the public," said Brookins.