Health care top priority for Braun

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This article was published 03/09/2019 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After struggling to get her father proper medical care in Winnipeg, a local nurse practitioner has decided to run for MLA under the Liberal banner.

Kathryn Braun is the Manitoba Liberal Party’s candidate in the Kildonan-River East constituency. Braun said she has been directly affected by the current government’s cuts in health care both as a user of the systems and as a teacher. Braun is an instructor with the nursing program at Red River College.

When her father fell ill, they waited five months to get a biopsy done and had 

appointments postponed during the health care changes taking place. Around Christmas 2018, after months of delay, he was taken to Emergency and was left on a stretcher for 

almost 60 hours. He was then diagnosed with lung cancer, but by then, there was nothing to be done.

“I’m sick of the cutbacks. If you want to fix your kitchen, you don’t start by blowing up your house. I think it’s a chaotic mess. And the rumor is (Brian Pallister) is going after education next, and I am not putting my kid’s future in jeopardy,” Braun said.

Braun lived for many years in the Kildonan-River East riding and recently moved to East St. Paul. She said she is running for the area because of the strong relationships she’s developed there. 

“It’s near and dear to my heart,” she said of the riding. 

If elected, improving Manitoba’s health care system is her first priority. Secondly, she wants to ensure that there will be no cuts in education.

“I want to see the nurse practitioners 

implemented more because they are not being utilized now. There are very few jobs. I know nurse practitioners that are taking public health jobs because they can’t get an NP job. So our taxpayers are funding them to go to school, and yet, they can’t get a job,” she explained. “Nurse practitioners focus more on illness prevention and disease prevention within the medical model. We incorporate medicine along with nursing, and so there are benefits in having nurse practitioners.”

Another goal of hers is to restore staffing numbers. She said nurses are stressed due to the number of hours they work and the lack of resources they work with.

“It’s unsafe. It’s not good for the patients, and it’s not good for the province. They are going to leave the province and we can’t have that. We don’t grow the economy by cutting jobs,” she added. “And I certainly don’t want education to go that route.”

Climate change is another issue she will be addressing. Seeing her 12-year-old son studying the topic in school, she realized how the impacts of climate change are influencing kids these days.

“I want to make sure that our world is good for our children and that requires change,” she said.

Braun described herself as a critical thinker who believes in innovative ways to do things. She is fond of evidence-based research to find the best solutions for issues and said it will be a tool that will help her make informed decisions. 

“We need to look at communities and see what we can do here that’s similar that can benefit us,” she said.

Also running in Kildonan-River East are NDP candidate Elliot Macdonald and PC candidate Cathy Cox (incumbent).