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Born Leaders

Although not all RNABC workplace representatives enter the program with leadership expertise, that doesn't stop them from learning those skills and then going on to initiate, develop and oversee a variety of progressive workplace projects. Those who already have a history of leading others continue to demonstrate those qualities during their involvement in the program. Meet seven workplace representatives who do just that.

No one had to persuade Edie Pletzer that becoming a nursing leader was the right thing to do. In November 2004, Pletzer became the assistant manager for acute mental health in Kamloops. For 11 years prior to that, she was a staff nurse and RNABC workplace representative at Kamloops' Royal Inland Hospital. Working within that role, she achieved some remarkable things.

Pletzer is not alone. Workplace representatives are RNABC's front-line support for practicing registered nurses in British Columbia. As nursing leaders, they are role models, mentors and excellent communicators. They also possess a good understanding of how different parts of the health care system fit together. Armed with these skills and knowledge, RNABC's workplace representatives who take on leadership roles are central to progressive change and to guiding others toward a common goal or desired end. Indeed, as health care undergoes one tumultuous change after another, nursing leaders in all levels of an organization are more essential than ever.

Edie Pletzer

Many years ago, while employed as a medical detox worker, Pletzer discovered that she was fascinated with psychiatry and mental health. That spurred her to sign up for a few undergraduate psychology courses and then to study nursing at Cariboo College from which she graduated in 1990. Even as a student she was drawn toward involvement with her professional organization. She regularly attended RNABC chapter meetings and, after graduation, served on the executive of the Kamloops Chapter.

"I was highly motivated to acquire more knowledge, skills and competence," she recalls. Becoming a workplace representative in 1993, she says, "seemed like a natural progression."

As a driving force behind the formation of a practice council at Royal Inland tor acute psychiatry, Pletzer developed unitspecific role descriptions as well as a competencies checklist for the nurses working in acute psychiatry. Those changes, plus the fact that four registered nurses have agreed to sit on the nursing practice council are seen as steps toward improving the practice environment.

"The on-site leadership expectations will be there," she says. "Nurses need on-site leadership because they work 24/7. Nurses must pick up the work of social workers, occupational therapists and other paramedicals beyond Monday to Friday. I don't know exactly why it is, but it seems to take a nurse to understand nurses' work. Someone needs to speak for nurses at the leadership table."

Pletzer has also taken a leadership role in the community as a casual registered nurse for the After-hours Urgent Response Program for community mental health/addictions. In her spare time, she completed her baccalaureate degree, obtained Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) certification in psychiatric/mental health nursing, completed a diploma in advanced psychiatric nursing, sat on a variety of committees and worked with other Royal Inland workplace representatives and with the British Columbia Nurses Union (BCNU) Io promote a quality practice environment.

Pletzer's development has been an evolving, but innately natural, process. Before she even entertained notions of nursing as a career, she was a site supervisor for a large hardware store and then a project manager at the Kamloops Sexual Assault Counseling Centre. While she attributes much of her present confidence and competence to some formal leadership education and to the fact that she was a mature student, Pletzer obviously has managerial talents. Not content to sever her connection to the RNABC Workplace Representative Program, she is currently a management liaison for the workplace representative program for acute mental health in Kamloops.

"When you're a professional, there are things you have to do above and beyond your job," she says. "Being a workplace rep is part of how I do that."

Stacey Henderson

Stacey Henderson is the patient care coordinator for the 18-bed maternity unit at Burnaby Hospital and has been an RNABC workplace representative for just over a year. While she has not had any formal leadership training, she's honed many leadership skills while on the job. But becoming a workplace representative, she says, put a whole new slant on her leadership abilities. By assisting nurses to use RNABC's Standards for Registered Nursing Practice in British Columbia and Guidelines for a Quality Practice Environment for Registered Nurses in British Columbia, she discovered that they were empowered to take steps toward solving a long-standing workplace issue.

"I felt I was able to give the staff a lot more insight into how we could go about changing things we knew needed to change," Henderson says. "So often nurses know what the problem is and the solution, but feel disempowered."

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