Immediate action is necessary
The prescription to fix nursing shortage includes three things government needs to do
Over the last decade, nurses have gone from feeling undervalued and overworked to invisible and silenced.
Their pleas for help and safer work environments are going unanswered. The provincial government’s new action to improve emergency care falls short of addressing these issues and reducing the staggering nursing vacancies that continue to have a negative impact across the entire health-care system.
In Nova Scotia, new regulations for commercial vehicles aimed to improve safety and prevent drivers from logging excessive hours on the road took effect Jan. 1.
Nurses, however, are commonly and repeatedly required to work 24-hour shifts while caring for our sick and dying. Their sense of hopelessness is profound and heartbreaking.
Nova Scotians know we are facing a dire shortage of nurses, unprecedented wait times and overcrowding of emergency units, but all they get from politicians is bickering and finger pointing.
Right now, nurses across Nova Scotia are being forced to choose between their jobs, patients, their families and their own well-being.
They cannot abandon their patients when there is no relief or backfill, nor can they sustain a career that punishes them physically and mentally. Yet politicians of all stripes banter about the words “nursing shortage” as if it’s a new and emerging talking point. The last thing patients or our nurses care about are political points.
Nurses sounded the alarm about the coming crisis decades ago and have been offering solutions and a willingness to collaborate with all levels of government. What we want for Nova Scotians is simple: for patients to finally receive the care they need, and for nurses to practise their profession under safe and sustainable working conditions. But we need governments to start listening.
Governments must do three things to fix the nursing shortage crisis: keep experienced nurses in their jobs, bring nurses back to the public sector and recruit nurses where they are needed most.
We need proven programs, backed by firm timelines and real accountability.
To stop nurses from quitting, going part-time or retiring early, and ensure safe patient care, nurses’ working conditions must be improved. Nova Scotia can legislate to reduce workloads by implementing safe nurse-to-patient ratios and make targeted investments in retention initiatives.
The federal government should also be making direct investments to support return and recruitment initiatives, including mental health programming. Currently, the wait time in Nova Scotia for urgent mental health care is seven days, an unacceptably gruelling wait.
Past generations of nurses often worked beyond their retirement date out of a passion for the profession and an eagerness to pitch in when needed.
It was common for nurses to work well into their 60s and sometimes 70s, on a casual or part-time basis. One such nurse dreamed of working beyond her 60th birthday at her rural, seaside hospital but gave up that hope once she saw her work-life balance eroding, even after reducing her availability.
Vacation denials, excessive workloads, extended and unsafe shifts, and growing hostility toward health-care workers were demoralizing for staff, forcing her to reevaluate her long-term goals. She will retire in the spring, one more nurse lost to a broken system.
The solutions we are offering will help bring nurses
and early retirees back to the public sector, reducing Nova Scotia’s reliance on expensive private agencies while still ensuring surge needs are met across the country. We also need to expand domestic training programs and target recruitment to diversify the nursing workforce.
To that end, Nova Scotia must continue to scale up student nurse programs to support them securing employment in attractive fulltime jobs and expand access to micro-credentials to support nurses wanting to advance in their careers.
The government must also provide consistent tuition relief for nurses who wish to bridge beyond their current designations and provide funding for nurses to acquire additional training to confidently apply to work in areas like emergency departments.
Nurses deserve safe workplaces and patients deserve access to the care they need. All levels of government must step up, just like nurses have for so long. Change must be imminent and meaningful. Nurses must work in environments that are safe and respectful and be remunerated for their knowledge, skill and value.
Before burnout claims all our nursing resources, immediate action is necessary to address ongoing transgressions against our largest sector of health-care workers. Nurses in Nova Scotia have real solutions; our governments need to listen.