Niagara Health nurses lauded for pandemic professionalism
Health-care workers have put in long hours as COVID-19 challenges have dragged on in region
After more than two years of asking Niagara’s nurses to “go above and beyond” for their patients and community, “burnout is definitely top of mind,” said Niagara Health’s chief nursing officer Heather Paterson.
“We understand our nurses are tired, they’ve been working long hours on the front line, and it (the COVID-19 pandemic) has gone on much longer than we thought,” she said.
“It’s really hard right now. It’s challenging.”
Many of the 2,100 nurse practitioners, registered practical nurses and registered nurses working at Niagara Health hospitals were among the 2,229 hospital staff that have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Many more were required to selfisolate after potential exposure, often separating them from their families and loved ones for weeks at a time.
Paterson said she has heard numerous stories from her staff about “self-isolation, personal sacrifice, living away from your vulnerable parents or children.”
“It just speaks to the professionalism that we see in our front-line nurses as well as our entire healthcare team,” she said. “I don’t know if everybody understands how many times our nurses have had to do that.”
Nevertheless, Paterson said they have continued doing their jobs, driven by their professionalism, their commitment to their patients and community, as well as each other.
“Every day, we see our nurses going above and beyond,” she said.
She said the nurses understand “how important and valuable they are to our patients and healthcare system,” as well as their colleagues.
Paterson said she started her career as an emergency nurse, working at the Niagara Falls hospital in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
She said she “established some of my best friendships from those days and nights.”
“You work really closely. You spend a lot of time together. I think that there’s a commitment not only to the patients, but also to each other,” she said, adding the camaraderie has also inspired nurses to keep going, despite the adversity.
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario is releasing a report next Thursday, during the third National Nursing Week since the pandemic began, from May 8 to 14, focusing on the impact the pandemic has had on nurses called Nursing Through Crisis: A Comparative Perspective.
It’s based on surveys of Canadian nurses, showing more than 75 per cent of respondents described themselves as burnt out, while more than two-thirds said they plan to leave their positions within five years, with many either retiring or looking for another profession.
“It’s a job that is so important to really everyone, so how do we make sure the people that are delivering the care get the support that they need?” she said. “If you know you have that mentorship support, if you know you have the support of other allied health leadership within the organization, I think that makes it a little better.”
She said there are also many opportunities for nurses beyond the hospitals.
“I think that’s an important topic that we have to let new grads and potential recruits into programs know, that people think of bedside nursing but there’s so much more to it,” she said.
“Nursing has given me so many opportunities that when I graduated, I never knew existed.”
Public health nurses have been in the thick of the pandemic, as well.
They too have continued to do their jobs despite the challenges, said Alejandro Galvez, team lead for Niagara Region Public Health’s mass immunizations program.
“It’s been a pretty interesting two years, for sure,” he said.
“We’ve faced quite a bit in the last year, or so (since COVID-19 vaccines became widely available).
“Keeping up to date with all the changes has been pretty stressful, but at the same time we’ve had a lot of support from our mass immunization supervisors, our team leads and our managers — they’ve all been wonderful individuals and helpful resources to help cope with the stress and all the changes that have happened.”
Meanwhile, he said it takes considerable time to keep on top of updates from National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), as well as government eligibility changes.
For professionals tasked with preventing the spread of infection, Galvez said the ongoing rhetoric about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines as well as the dangers posed by the virus “can be tough.”
“But I think the most important thing is that we’re providing that education to every single person and we want to make sure that everybody is doing their part,” he said, referring to public health guidelines such as mask-wearing, physical distancing, hand hygiene and vaccinations.
Meanwhile, despite the stress they face, Galvez said knowing they are ultimately helping to save lives makes it all worthwhile.
“I think it’s a day-to-day basis for a lot of people. We don’t know what we’re going to expect every time we come in. Some days it could be potentially stressful. Other days, it’s very rewarding,” he said.
“I think what motivates a lot of our staff, including myself is we’re making a difference. We’re making an impact for a lot of our residents. We want to make sure that everybody is fully protected.”
He said it’s those “touching moments … when you develop a rapport with a patient that really make things all worth it in the end.”
Niagara Health care workers have so far administered 1,054,902 doses of vaccine, including 377,168 shots in the arm provided by Niagara Region Public Health.
“It is a phenomenal number. We’re very proud of what we’ve done for our region, helping to protect our residents. It required a lot of effort from all of our teams at public health,” Galvez said.
Nursing staff from other public health programs were also redeployed to help with the pandemic response, while other programs that continued faced an increased need for the services they provided.
Public health nurse Angela Roy said she too was temporarily seconded to join pandemic response efforts, but the nursefamily partnership program she typically works with was deemed too essential to shelve for very long.
“We were some of the first nurses to be repatriated back to our program to continue working. Throughout the entire pandemic, we actually maintained face-to-face visits with our clients.
“We were out in the community in clients’ homes, continuing to assist families.”
The program links expectant first-time parents with nurses who visits them up to twice a week until their child turns two years old.
“It was really essential that we get out there and stay with these parents during the pandemic, because for a lot of our clients they don’t have the optimal support system,” Roy said.
“Our clients faced a lot of isolation during the pandemic. We’re dealing with young teens and women and social outings and supports are a critical part of their life. When those things shut down, it had a huge impact on our clients’ mental well being.”