Nurses covered by the Nurses Bargaining Association (NBA) contract, including the 900 Registered Psychiatric Nurses represented by HSA, have voted 85 per cent in favour of accepting a new collective agreement.

The new agreement features wage increases for all nurses, some changes to benefits coverage, and a number of contract changes that address staffing issues, education, and violence in the workplace.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The tentative agreement achieves eight of the 11 priorities HSA's RPNs set for bargaining, including:

• addressing the shortcomings of the Pharmacare tie-in which reduced drug coverage for nurses
• wage increases
• maintaining benefits
• recognizing the full scope of practice for RPNs
• expanding the definition of "family"
• addressing violence prevention
• addressing workload through on-call language
• addressing LTD coverage