BC nurses and health employers have ratified a new five-year agreement.
The agreement provides members of the Nurses Bargaining Association with a 5.5% wage increase over the five-year term.
Nanaimo’s BCNU nurse representative, Rachael Kimmler says the agreement was a long time coming.
Kimmler says there are some provisions in the new contract for training for specialty nurses, those that work in the O-R, recovery room, and labour and delivery where there were shortages.
She says it means rather than drawing from other jurisdictions leaving them short, the contract provides for training existing nurses for the specialty areas and then hiring new graduating nurses to take over the vacancies.
