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By Derek Craddock

HEALTH CARE CRISIS

‘We have a problem’: Nurses union says Northern Sask. not immune to health care shortages

Aug 5, 2022 | 4:00 PM

As stories of hospitals and health care centres buckling under pressure continue to surface, one of the province’s biggest health care unions say the same issues are being felt in northern Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses said workers continue to be burned out and many are leaving the profession altogether or choosing to become a travel nurse, taking their skills to different cities on contract.

It’s a concerning trend to first vice-president, Denise Dyck, but it’s not a surprise.

“We have a chronic and worsening nursing shortage in this province. They (northern Sask.) are no different than anywhere else in the province.”

“People have left. We do hear from our nurses that some have gone into travel positions so that they would have some control over their work life.”

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Currently, on Indeed, there are over 120 pages listing travel nurse positions offering full-time and part-time shifts, paying anywhere from $45 to $110/hr. Some nurses have even taken positions in the U.S.

Last fall a survey was conducted by the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario which showed that about 87 per cent of RPNs in that province said they were considering leaving the profession entirely.

“They’re putting in long hours, they’re doing longer shifts, they’re doing lots of overtime. They’re doing whatever they can to keep their facilities and care for the people of those communities. But it’s on their backs, which is causing them more burnout, more stress. There’s a lot of a burden that they’re carrying,” said Dick who talked about the issues in rural communities where some health centres are in danger of closing.

The shortage of health care workers is an issue affecting the entire country, even hitting some of the largest and most renowned institutions.

Earlier this week, the Toronto General Hospital issued an alert for three intensive care units saying they had either reached their total bed capacity or do not have enough staff to keep all beds open safely.

University Health Network said the alert applies to its cardio-vascular, cardiac and medical-surgical intensive care units at Toronto General Hospital.

A spokesperson for UHN said it took the action due to a staffing shortage and the hospital is actively triaging patients and working with the provincial organization that directs emergency critical care to ensure patients get the most appropriate treatment.

Dick said the situation is dire and more needs to be done.

“We have a problem. We have a system that’s in crisis. We have a system that in areas either is going to collapse or has collapsed already because of this shortage. We need it to be acknowledged that that’s actually happening, and it needs to be a top priority for our government that they’re willing to actually have the conversations to address it and do something about it.”

She is hoping the government creates a provincial nursing shortage task force involving partners from health care unions, the SHA and the province and to help work with educational institutes training nurses.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock