IN OUR VIEW: Nurses should be doing health care

IN OUR VIEW: Nurses should be doing health care

Published 11:45 am Saturday, July 18, 2026

How much non-nursing work are nurses expected to do during a shift in B.C.?

Nurses set up picket lines in July following a strike vote, but they remain on the job. That is, their core job – nursing, performing their health care duties in hospitals and cancer centres across the province.

What they’re not doing is overtime or “non-nursing duties.” According to the BC Nurses Union, some of the work nurses are asked to do includes clerical work, changing light bulbs, collecting money and valuables from patients, emptying trash bins, and filling in for receptionists on their breaks.

The nurses union claims between pressure to do these duties and to take on overtime, their union members had registered 2,300 reports of “intimidation” from management between the start of job action on July 2 and July 10.

We’re all hoping this strike is settled sooner rather than later, for the sake of nurses and patients alike.

But the list of non-nursing duties shows another problem with our health care system.

We have a crisis of care in B.C.

There are not enough doctors nor enough nurses to handle our aging and (until very recently) rapidly growing population.

And yet nurses are being asked to change light bulbs, to to non-medical clerical work, to empty trash bins?

One way to make our health care system work more efficiently is to ensure that the medical specialists, from nurses and doctors to X-ray technicians and lab workers, are doing the work that most needs doing.

After this contract is finalized, the province should commit to a major audit of the work being done in our hospitals. If a nurse on a 12-hour shift spends an hour doing work that should be done by clerks, custodians, security guards, or management, then that’s an hour stolen from patients.

We may need to hire more support workers, or invest in better software and technology to reduce these administrative burdens. But if it gets nurses and their health care colleagues back to their core work, it will save money and lives.

– M.C.