Province allows Alberta nurses to get faster benefit coverage for on-the-job PTSD

The Alberta government has put registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses back on the list of professionals who can get benefits when they experience job-related stress disorder.

The United Nurses of Alberta says it follows through on a promise in contract bargaining to extend to nurses presumptive coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Wednesday cabinet order from Jobs Minister Joseph Schow made it official.

The change means when nurses apply for Workers' Compensation Board benefits for PTSD, the board must now assume the stress was caused by their work unless proven otherwise.

The union said in a news release Thursday the change is critical as it means nurses will no longer be forced to wait for — or be denied — benefits after experiencing traumatic events on the job.

David Harrigan, the union's labour relations director, said health-care workers experience a "fair amount" of physical and verbal abuse, along with moral distress.

"Everybody's working short-staffed, and the patients are under quite a lot of stress as well," he said.

For the nurses included in the order, it reverses course on a COVID-era policy.

In 2021, the United Conservative government limited presumptive coverage to only first responders such as police, firefighters, emergency medical workers and correctional officers.

The order does not apply to licensed practical nurses.