Calling All Nurses
As newly retired nurses, we continue our passion for helping the public understand the scope, challenges, and rewards of contemporary nursing practice, using the lived experiences of point of care nurses. In Season 1 we spoke with nurses making change with challenges of social concern, such as Indigenous health, the toxic drug poisoning crisis, planetary health, public health and the pandemic, and challenges in acute care.
In Season 2, we are speaking with nurses in positions of influence provincially, in B.C., nationally, in Canada, and internationally. Season 2 is available now!
Calling All Nurses
Calling All Nurses - S2, Episode 6 - Adriane Gear and the BC Nurses' Union
The BC Nurses' Union protects and advances the health, safety, social and economic well-being of their members, the profession, and communities (BCNU, 2024). Listen as BCNU President, Adriane Gear discusses the recently negotiated minimum nurse-patient ratios, led by BC, as well as how she sees nursing as "ready for takeoff", with all the current synergies of collaboration.
Adriane Gear was elected president of BCNU in 2023. As union president, Gear is committed to ensuring that health employers treat BC’s nurses with respect and provide patients with the care they deserve.
Adriane has been an RN since 1993. She has worked in long-term care at Saanich Peninsula and general surgery at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General (VGH) hospitals. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked in case contact management and surveillance for Island Health.
Adriane first became active in BCNU in 2004, when she felt her employer had not taken her health and safety seriously after she received a needle stick injury while pregnant with her second child. She became a steward at VGH and was elected as the South Islands region occupational health and safety (OHS) representative in 2010. She later served as one of the region’s council members.
In 2015 members elected Adriane as the union’s executive councillor for OHS and mental health. One of her proudest moments occurred in 2019 when, after an extended BCNU campaign, the province amended the Workers’ Compensation Act to make it easier for nurses diagnosed with a mental injury to access WorkSafeBC compensation.
Adriane served as acting vice president from 2018 to 2019 and in 2022 was elected vice president following a special election. In that role, she served as BCNU’s provincial lobby coordinator, where she led campaigns to raise awareness of the province’s critical nursing shortage and pressure all levels of government to address nurses’ issues. More recently, she chaired the union’s Human Rights and Equity Committee and fostered BCNU’s renewed a relationship with other provincial nurses’ union and membership in the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions.
Adriane is committed to championing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within the union and the health-care system. She is dedicated to upholding the Nurses’ Bargaining Association provincial collective agreement and ensuring that the province implements nurse-patient ratios, which will improve the staffing and practice conditions needed to keep nurses in the profession and improve patient care. She also wants to encourage more nurses to get involved with the union by continuing to share the importance of nurses’ collective power.
Adriane is a mother to two young adults, both attending post-secondary school. She lives with her husband and boxer Phoebe. Adriane is grateful for the opportunity to live on the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ people which includes W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip) and SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation.
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