[Sharon]

Health Care Reform – How does it affect nurses?

[Valerie]

Health Care reform always affects nurses. Whether it is decisions about health care made at a local, provincial, or national level nurses are always affected. Nurses are frontline workers like so many people in other professions. If cuts are to be made, nursing hours or manpower is usually the first thing to go. I work in education, but trained in nursing. I feel most days post-pandemic like I am back in nursing. Students, families, and co-workers have been hit hard by the pandemic and there is so much depression and anxiety out there. No one can get the care they need medically be it for physical or mental health.

“Post-pandemic”, my hope is that all governments focus on prevention and put more funding into community and mental health. Everyone should have access to a family doctor so issues can be found and dealt with early, rather than suffering and raising costs due to sickness from stress or advanced sickness because something wasn’t found and treated early enough. Nurses and other health care workers such as psychologists should be available to those in education with the after effects of online schooling and lockdowns. The situation is worse than people think. Woefully, regardless of the choice of how to fund healthcare we know dollars will always go to hospitals first. Governments across the country need to get their priorities straight. Good healthcare begins at home with even having a home in the first place, a guaranteed income, and access to regular health care and monitoring. Without it, pressure on hospitals will continue to increase and the cycle of cuts to frontline workers and a decline in peoples health will continue,

[Author]

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