The 52-year-old, who was independently confirmed to be a nurse by CTVNews.ca but asked to protect her identity, said she enjoyed her job caring for patients as she worked as an OR nurse in surgical care wards. and in rehabilitation and palliative care. Since February, however, she has left her job due to stress and is seeing a psychologist after suffering from burnout. After two years of intense work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sue said both she and her colleagues have faced “bullying” by administrators, who she claims are forcing them to care for too many patients. which would be considered safe. Others, he claims, are ordered to work mandatory overtime to cover staff shortages due to illness, burnout or because colleagues quit. “When I think about breastfeeding now … I get the shakes,” she said. “There was always a hint of ‘don’t you dare call in sick,’ or ‘don’t you dare lose your job,’ or ‘we know you’re stressed but Ontario needs you.’ Sue decided to take early retirement and said she knows many other experienced nurses who left to work in long-term care, public health nursing or nursing offices where they can choose their own hours and tasks, reducing their stress. Two others planning their exit are waiting to notify administrators, he added. “Everybody I’ve talked to is either gone or retired or going to a psychiatrist or a counselor and taking anti-depressants… How sad is that?” he said. EMERGENCY CARE “STRETCHED” AND “UNSAFE” This weekend, many hospitals across Canada — particularly in rural communities — are announcing temporary closures of emergency departments and other medical services due to shortages of nurses and doctors. Glengarry Memorial Hospital, in Alexandria, Ont. is closing the ER overnight Saturday and Sunday, while Kamsack Hospital in Kamsack, Sask. it closes hospital beds and cuts emergency hours because there aren’t enough nurses to staff them. A hospital in Perth, Ont. he has seen his ER closed since July 2nd. Deb Lefebvre, a registered nurse who lives in Kingston Ont., but works out of the area in another community, described urgent care in Canada as “unsafe.” “They are stretched and themselves have become unsafe areas for patients to attend as well,” he said. “We are leaving hospitals … feeling that patient care has been compromised.” Another nurse, independently verified by CTVNews.ca, who asked not to be named, added: “The staff-to-patient ratio is also not safe and many nurses are now leaving knowing that patients are not receiving safe care. Bells are left on for hours, patients get dirty because there is no one to take them to the bathroom, patients die in waiting rooms. Hospitals in Canada are not safe.” On Friday, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs replaced his health minister and the CEO of Horizon Health Network after a patient died this week in an emergency department waiting room in Fredericton. A review process has been launched into the death. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians also warned in a statement earlier this month that “it has never been more important to pay attention to emergency departments,” adding that these facilities are “a window into the health of health care.” Lefebvre said the difficult decision to close services is a huge red flag. There aren’t enough people to do the job safely, he claims. Her advice to Canadians heading to an emergency in the coming weeks is to have a friend or relative accompany them to make sure they’ll be seen if their condition suddenly worsens. In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca on Friday, Paul-Émile Cloutier, president and CEO of HealthCareCAN admitted that the past two and a half years have stripped Canada’s health system bare. “Throughout the pandemic, health workers have worked – and continue to work – hard to provide the best care they can under extremely difficult circumstances, but what we see now is a health workforce that is no longer in position to plug cracks in a system that was not built to handle this constant and increasing pressure,” he said. “Patient outcomes and health workforce shortages will not improve if we just keep pouring more money into a broken system. It needs to be re-imagined to effectively address the changing needs of an aging population and the growing demand for healthcare services.” He called on all levels of government to take immediate and concrete action now to “strengthen the health system for tomorrow”. Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Howlett, president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, sympathized with emergency nurses, saying they carry a very heavy burden. “They get discouraged, burn out and then leave the department to work elsewhere. With fewer and fewer emergency room nurses and doctors across the country, we are struggling to meet all care needs and are extremely concerned about potential delays in care,” he told CTVNews.ca in an emailed statement Friday. THE SITUATION COULD BECOME WORSE A late 2021 survey by Statistics Canada said one in four nurses plan to quit because of job stress or mental health concerns in the next three years. ( With a summer wave of COVID-19 underway, departures from the front line may intensify, according to Linda Silas, head of the Canadian Nurses Federation. “What we are hearing from our provincial nursing unions is that they are getting calls every day from nurses who want to either change their status, going from full-time to part-time, or part-time to casual, thereby dramatically reducing their hours or leaving altogether. early retirement,” Silas said. Bonuses offered by some provinces such as Ontario and Quebec have not worked to stem the tide, he claims. “Everybody falls flat on their face, because it’s a flash in the pan,” he said. The underlying issues, Silas claims, are quality of life and how nurses say they are treated, with many ordered to work overtime or denied vacations. Retaining these veteran, experienced nurses is the first step to “stopping the bleeding” and keeping frontline health care safe, they added. “Should employers work with nurses to see what they need to stay?” he said: “For some, it’s as simple as ‘I can’t be made to do overtime.’ “I have a family.” “So you guarantee I’ll stay then,” added Silas. A NATIONAL SOLUTION? Premiers meeting in Victoria earlier this week asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to convene a first meeting of ministers to hammer out a health care funding deal. Nursing groups are also calling on the federal government to develop a national plan to address the nursing shortage, including a plan for how many nurses will be needed over the coming decades.
