Saskatchewan nurses disappointed and tired amid provinces fifth wave of COVID-19

“We’re hearing now from our members that we are at capacity,” she said. “They’re hanging bed sheets up in emergency rooms when they’re trying to do triage there’s so many people there.”

There are other illnesses coming into hospitals, not just COVID-19 cases, Zambory said adding these people need to go somewhere.

“What Premier Moe is doing here is taking an absolute gamble. He’s gambling with the system, he’s gambling with peoples lives, he’s gambling with the fact we have a health human resource crisis on our hands that they should be well aware of.”

She said SUN has studies that are telling them healthcare workers mental health is also in a crisis, explaining there has not been any let up for those who show up every day to work since the beginning of the pandemic.

“The conversation that was had [yesterday] you know Premier Moe said something to the effect of ‘just accept it and be prepared.’ Well, we can’t be prepared when there is no room. There’s no capacity in the system. We hear every day of rural facilities that have no staff that have had to go on bypass. That means that those people travel into the larger centres like Prince Albert, like Regina and like Saskatoon.”

According to the latest data on the government’s dashboard, as of yesterday there are 121 people in hospital with COVID-19 and nine are in the intensive care unit. Of the 121 in hospital, 112 are inpatient and of those, 57 inpatient hospitalizations are a COVID-19-related illness, 45 are incidental, asymptomatic infections and 10 have not yet been determined.

With the pandemic in general, Carolyn Strom, a registered nurse in Prince Albert told paNOW nurses are tired and see firsthand when people are sick, and how the virus affects them.

“As healthcare workers we try and help. And right now, it’s just too much that I almost feel like we can’t, we’re not able to help everyone and people are pretty much on their own which is really scary and sad,” Strom said.

She explained she has been doing extra work in her off time, taking calls and messages from people who know she’s a nurse to help them make sense of the guidelines because they’re confused. She is also tired and worried for her own family as she has children in school which she called not one of the safest places to be.

In terms of yesterday’s COVID-19 briefing Strom said she does not agree with the Moe’s decision to not implement further restrictions.

“I took issue with him saying you know people just need to trust themselves at the end of the press conference. And it was just like, what? You mean don’t take advice of healthcare or public health officials? That’s what it sounded like and that will not go over well. It won’t help people not get sick, you know, it’s everyone for themselves right now and it’s going to be rough the next few months.”

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12

by Ian Gustafson

Saskatchewan nurses disappointed and tired amid provinces fifth wave of COVID-19

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