Labour shortage in health care must be addressed, nurse says
Ready, set, go.
In the coming weeks, candidates will be on your doorstep. It will be your chance to ask them what they plan to do about issues that matter to you.
We asked Ottawa residents what they would like local candidates to address. Today, we spoke to Rachel Muir, a registered nurse.
Rachel Muir has been a registered nurse for 33 years. She would like to see a national strategy to recruit health-care workers. The shortage was bad before. It's much worse now, she said.
“We can't keep nurses. The pandemic has just exacerbated a problem that we were barely able to hold together,” said Muir, who works in the birthing unit at The Ottawa Hospital, where she is the local bargaining unit president with the Ontario Nurses Association.
“Nurses who were thinking of retiring are leaving the profession. We're losing a huge knowledge base and skill set.”
Last March, Statistics Canada reported 15,700 health-care vacancies in hospitals at the end of 2020, with 10,800 vacancies in nursing and residential care facilities. The Ottawa Hospital currently has fewer than 200 vacancies, some of them part-time and casual. The hospital ramped up recruitment efforts at the beginning of the pandemic and has recruited more than 2,000 health-care staff, including about 600 nurses.
A study released in June 2020 that collected data from 7,358 regulated nurses across Canada found more than 36 per cent screened positive for major depressive disorders and 33 per cent reported suicidal thoughts.
“Nurses are seeing things people should not see once, let alone daily. No matter how strong you are, this will take a toll,” Muir said.
She would like to see more spaces opened in universities to train nurses. At the very least, the nurses who are retiring need to be replaced. Salaries that keep up with inflation will help attract interested candidates.
“Nurses want more respect,” Muir said. “They want to be recognized as the professionals they are.”