| Shefears | for her baby Nurse shortage has patients anxious ‘t By ALEX HAMILTON AT EIGHT-and-a-half months pregnant, the last thing Rhonda Alexander wants to worry about is the hospital's nurses shortage. . But she can’t help being annoyed with the lack of nuzses in Terrace and Vancouver, because she says [t's affecting her and her baby’s health. : Considered a high tisk preg- mancy, Alexander was flown down to B,C, Women’s Hospital in Van- ccouver for six weeks for special ‘treatment because she suffers from ‘seizures that are intensified by her pregnancy. For the past month and a half she’s also suffered from exhausting :pre-term labour. > “I’ve been in continual pain for ;six weeks,”’ Alexander said. ‘I’ve wbeen just a wreck." : And the nurses shortage here and ‘in Vancouver have made matters worse, : She said her nurses at B.C. :Women’s Hospital were over- ;worked and tired and as a result, hey were cranky and rough with iher. : “People can’t get better like xthat,’” she said. “I'd feel worse and -worse Fonger,”’ ; And now that she’s back in Ter- race she said she feels she’s been Mealt a double whammy. ; The nurses shortage at Mills ‘Memorial Hospital is stressing her ‘severely. ; “Its their rudeness,’’ she said. :“They’re tired and it affects every- ‘thing around them.”? Doctors ‘MILLS MEMORIAL Hospital has ‘been unable to fill its vacant chief ‘of staff position for months since there aren’t any doctors who want ‘the job. ‘ Dr. Jim Dunfield, who held the ‘key position for four years, “resigned in May stating he couldn’t “carry out the hospital’s mandate to ‘ent services in order to balance its ‘budget. ; ‘The administrative position is ‘part time, carrying a salary of »$30,000 a year. ' In his resignation letter Dunfield Last week she said nurses were three hours late with her medica- tion because they were so busy. “They were all blaming each olher,’’ she said, She also said it’s often difficult to get admitted because the hospital's 15 beds are full, Due to the shortage of nurses, Mills has reduced the number of available beds to 15 when the nursery is open and 20 when it is closed, Alexander said nurses often ask her whether she really needs to be admitted, Now she’ll wait at home until the pain from her contractions are ex- treme before going to the hospital for medication. She said nurses rarely have the time to talk with ber or explain things to her. “They're just plain too busy,” she said. “It’s frustrating.’’ If it wasn’t for her husband Mat- thew W. Bright, who helps take care of her 24-hours a day, Alexander said she’d be in real trouble, She said it’s her husband who often does ihe nurses’ jobs. He gives her ber needles — he was taught how by medical staff in Vancouver — and also helps her when she’s having seizures. They're not taking the time to take care of patients,’’ she said, “The nurses shortage affects you getting better.” And when she complains about their attitudes, Alexander said the nurses just get worse, “T pity the patients that come ay RHONDA ALEXANDER worries that a shortage of nurses is af- pate fecting health care and adding risk to her high-risk pregnancy, here,”’ she said. Nurse and local shop steward Penny Henderson admitied nurses are stressed out and tired whenever there is shortage of staff. She said at least once a week they are understalfed and have too much work, “Tt’s hard not to get stressed out when you have more work than you can handle,’’ Henderson said. However, she expect the situation to improve in the fail, when nurses come back from holidays and the four full-time nursing positions are filled. She said the nurses shortage is a problem across Canada. There simply aren’t cnough nurses any- where because there aren’t many people entering the profession. The nurses shortage at Mills Memorial is due to a lack of casuals (on-call nurses) to bring in when a full-time or part-time nurse is sick or on holidays To make matters worse, it is estimated that 80 per cent of nurses in Canada will be retiring within the next decade. shun administrative post wrote: “It is obvious to me that [the health council is] concemed more with balancing the hospital budget than with the provision of adequate health care to the com- munity and region.’’ Mills administrator Michael Leisinger said the position has never been popular among doctors. ‘Physicians are care givers and healers and most people don’t want {o get involved with the administra- tive side of the hospital and that’s what the chief of staff is,’” he said. The job is considered senior man- agement, responsible for reflecting and enforcing policies of the hospi- tal’s governing health council to medical staff and to investigate complaints made against the doc- tors. “So you can see it's a position that could put a physician in con- flict with their colleagues,’’ Leisinger added. One -local physician, Dr. Paul _Warberk, said doctors have talked about finding someone willing to take the position. “So far the answer is ae ‘no’, aes ee E-mail: merlin@kermode.net im SB6MHz MMX Cyrix Mil Procassor 64 MB SyncDRAM 512KB Laval2 Cache 4.0 MB Vidao Mamory 4.3 GB" Ultra DMA Hard Diive 32% Max? CD-Rom Drive eee ere ee 56K V.90 Modem? 3 1299.00 450 MHz AMD K6-2 upgrade version 7.00 « ~hMonter end Spestere not macty #4 shown . 466MHz Inte! Celeron Processor . 64 MB SyncDRAM , . 2X AGP Graphics with Directad ‘ 4.0 MB Video Memory . 12,0 GB? Ultra DMA Hard Orive . -32X Max’ CD-Rom Drive . SBKV.50Madem® - . 10/100 Mbps NIC $s Mondor nnd Eprehers not sxdcty ag shown Terrace & District Credit Team up again to bring you great systems and loans at Prime Rate (oac). PLUS, buy a Computer through your Terrace & District Credit Union Account and receive up to 1500 Canadian Plus Points! Also you will be entered into a draw for 25000 Canadian Plus Points!!! 2X AGP 3D Graphics with Direct 3D - ‘ Compaq Presario 57 1 I Pendragon Computers Gae. 103-4716 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. Ph: (260) 635-3362 Fax: (250) 365-6363 Web: www. pendragoncomputers.com All Systems include 17” Monitor and Speakers Pendragon Computers Ine. & iS BACK!!! XN Canadi>n Plus” INCENTIVES ¢ompaq Presario 5304 Compaq Presario 5360 . 450MHz AMD-K6-2 Processor with 83DNowl Tachnolagy . 64 Ma SyncORAM ‘ 4.0 MB Video Memory . 10,0 GB' Ula DMA Hard Drive 92X Max! CD-Rom Drive ‘ SEKV.90 Modem? % 1699.00 STRMGROF OPC Bak TH fel Monthy #1 Shope Sarmmas Suess: SOOMHz Intel Celeran Pracassor oo 96 MB SyncDRAM “4 . 128KB Leval2 Cache ‘ 4,0 MB Video Memory 10.0 GB! Ultra DMA Hard Drive 32X Max? CD-Rom Drive 2% AGP 3D Graphica with Direct 3D soe ESS Solo PCI Audio _ 1.6M8 OSLIEGK Modem ‘ 1OH0OMB NIC 5 1249.00 + MOnkor Bnet Spaatere not Oy kCDY $4 AS OWT Union 2X AGP Graphics with Direct3D Warbeck said. “Relations with administration are so Strained and there’s such a lack of confidence of doctors in ad- ministration that no-one thinks there would be any useful function of a chief of staff al this time.’’ Warbeck said a doctor might take the position if the hospital accepts a list of conditions the physicians have put forward, One of those demands is for an increase in the - $30,000 salary. To date, the health council has refused to agree to the conditions. The Terrace Standard. Wednesday. Auaust 18, 1999 - A3 et News In Brief Alcan tours summer-only THERE’s only two more weeks left for tours of Al- can’s Kitimat aluminum smelter now that the company has decided to discontinue the tours in the fall and winter. The daily tours end Aug. 31 as the latest cost-cutting drive within the same rationalization plan that spurred the company to decide to permanently close the Kemano lownsile, The off-season tours ran twice a week on a reservation basis. “The decision to discontinue the reservation-only Tuesday and Thursday regular tours in the fall and winter season is part of the smeltcr’s wide-ranging plans 10 improve business performance by C$50 mil- lion by the end of the year 2001,”’ said Alcan spokes- man Allan Hewitson. Most other major industries in the northwest don’t of- fer winter tours, he added. We were almost Mars NORTHWESTERN B.C. could have been Mars, but —- believe it or not -— we were just too far away. Location scouts for the new sci-fi thriller Mission to Mars pondered using Mount Edziza’s volcanic cinder cones and craicrs near Telegraph Creek to double for the red planet. But in the end they decided it would be too costly to shoot up here and opted to build a set in studios in Vancouver instead. Actors Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise are among the cast now filming in the Vancouver and Whistler area. It’s about a NASA Mars mission that turns disastrous resulting in more astronauts being sent there in an at- tempt to rescuc a survivor. The $100 million space adventure movie is directed by Brian DePalma, whose past films include Mission Impossible, The Untouchables and Scarface. Named to college board CALEDONIA TEACHER Ed Harrison and New Ajyansh businesswoman Lorene Plante have been re- appointed to the Northwest Community College beard. New to the board are Claudia Knight, who works at the Stewart health centre, and M, Margaret Clay, the owner of the Sportsman’s Lodge in Kispiox. Nine new or feappointments were made last week to the board which govems college activities from Houston to the Queen Charlotte Islands, Principals appointed FOUR NEW school principals have been appointed in Coast Mountain School District 82. They are: ¢ Tom McLean formerly the principal of Kitwanga Elementary Junior Secondary School will become the new principal of Kiti K’Shan Elementary Scheol. * Curtis Schricber, formerly the principal of Kitimat City High in Kitmat will become principal of Hazelton Secondary School. * Bruce Cookson, formerly from Yellowknife, NWT, has bekn appointed principal of New Hazelton Elementary School. * Tim Lee has been appointed principal of Kitwanga Elementary/Secondary School. Compaq Quickfaslora Inchided Seftware: | Microsoft Windows 63 2nd Ed. 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