2017 David Bland Award

CT TECHNOLOGIST KAREN HAMILTON AND X-RAY TECHNOLOGIST BRENDA HAUCK RECEIVE THE 2017 DAVID BLAND AWARD FROM REGION 7 DIRECTOR MARG BEDDIS.

HSA REPORT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2017

Brenda Hauck, X ray technologist at Saanich Peninsula Hospital and Karen Hamilton, CT Technologist at Saanich Peninsula HospitaL, shared the 2017 David Bland Award.

Hauck and Hamilton were recognized for their efforts to reduce injuries related to the transport of emergency patients.

"We work at a community hospital, near Sidney, in Medical Imaging," said Hauck. "Technologists were working on their own and were required to transport, transfer or otherwise assist emergency patients with no other staff support on evenings and weekends."

Concerned by the number of injuries caused by this, Hauck and Hamilton contacted HSA, who helped them tailor and deliver a survey of affected members.

"This survey showed that two-thirds of us had workload related injuries. Not only had 100 per cent of us worked in pain, but 100 per cent of us also felt we did not have the support to carry out our work safely."

A working group was formed. But by July, three more technologists were off with workload related injuries.

"Now at a crisis level, we were unable to provide full services due to a lack of staff which directly affected patient care as some had to be transported to Victoria for CT scans after hours. Those of us who were relatively healthy felt the pressure to work additional hours.

In October a new process for patient preparation, patient transport and transferring patients was implemented. This also included direct technologist to nurse communication by voice. More importantly, this led to the implementation of an island wide policy that stated two staff members are required to transfer immobile patients who are on a hovermatt.

"Prior to this, we had been directed to do this alone."

Although improvements have been made at the site, workload grievances have now been referred to arbitration.

"We and our co workers have been diligent in recording vast amounts of workload data which management seems to require. We would be happy to provide the template we created to record workload statistics to anyone who may be interested. And we must thank our co workers, who while overworked, took the time to record how overworked they were."