Jun 15, 2015
Langara School of Nursing student Tonie Castro attended the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Union (CFNU) Biennial Convention in June, 2015 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Castro was elected to be the Director of Communication for the Canadian Nursing Students’ Association, and sat on the CFNU’s National Executive Board as the official student representative.
In May she attended the NEB meeting in advance of the conference, and worked along side attendees with 30-40 years of nursing experience as the youngest member and a visible minority. There she gained a new perspective on how nursing and issues vary greatly from coast to coast, based on varying demographics and culture across Canada.
Castro noted the importance of nursing students being informed about federal politics: "I think that we need to get informed for the next federal election coming up. One of the main things we focused on the conference is that nurses will make sure that we “Vote for healthcare that we deserve!” What does that mean? Everyone will be affected by the cutbacks that the conservative party is planning to implement, especially nursing students and we need to make changes now. We are the future. We need to be aware of these issues and do something about it instead of just passively waiting for change to happen. That will affect our patient safety, workplace environment, and services. CFNU made sure that politicians are aware of our concerns and that they need to do something about it."
The CFNU led a march in Halifax on June 5 to demand federal leadership to make health care a priority in this election (see the article here on the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions website - nursesunions.ca)
“Canadians care about health care, this is something we know and we have heard consistently in the lead-up to this election,“ said CFNU President Linda Silas. “We are taking their message straight to the politicians this year, we want the voters’ voices to be heard. That’s what today’s march is about.”