Alberta student nurses who are unvaccinated for Covid-19 have been denied their right to attend clinical practice and preceptorship with Alberta Health Services. (AHS). This mandate is abuse and implementing a mandatory vaccine, assault. ("Criminal Code", 2022)

Furthermore, AHS's constant change in policies and relationships with our educational institutions presents a schizophrenic management strategy and broken contingency plan. 

AHS allowed their unvaccinated staff to return to work following a public announcement on December 23rd, 2021, with an AHS internal announcement on December 24th, 2021 and beginning on January 10th, 2022. AHS unvaccinated staff have been allowed to return to work, providing they submit to regular Covid testing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) protocols.

Although the AHS policy definition of staff includes volunteers and students on clinical, AHS has denied students the same rights. This decision has left unvaccinated nursing students devastated and has gravely affected their futures, families, finances, and livelihoods.

This new change in policy does not affect the "new hires" policy after November 30th, 2021. All new hires' must be double vaccinated to become employed. AHS claims that "students on clinical" are in the same category as new hires; because each clinical practical and preceptorship has a "beginning and end date."

AHS has applied different standards and rules for students, then other staff and volunteers, including those who have attended previous clinical practice before November 30th, 2021and students with religious and medical exemptions.

The colleges and universities have washed their hands and claim they cannot advocate because their external stakeholder, AHS, decides on their policies. This is a discriminatory and unreasonable mandate; the policy even excludes religious and medical exemptions.

Please support Alberta student nurses who reserve the right to decide what goes into their bodies and disagree with the AHS mandate. To remove us from our clinical practice and preceptorships by forcing us to take the vaccination or lose our careers and livelihood, is abuse.

Thank you for signing our petition:) 
Laila El-Jabiri

Citation:

Criminal Code. Laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. (2022). Retrieved February 2nd, 2022, from https://www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-265.html