Newest contract for nurses does not go far enough
Long shifts compromise staff as well as quality patient care
I am a retired registered nurse and for the past several months I’ve been commenting in Saltwire regarding what has happened to drive nurses out of provinces, out of Canada and some out of nursing altogether.
Despite the studies and forewarnings by reputable people as far back as 25 years ago, federal and provincial governments failed to recognize the long-term financial benefits of improved patient outcomes due largely to adequate nurse staffing.
Instead, governments and their enablers chose shortsighted cost cutting measures which were felt on the backs of RNS.
Many RNS were lost over the years, considered too expensive to hire full time. The full-time nurses were given an increasing amount of responsibility as cutbacks, disguised as “patient-focused care”, raged on through the 1990s.
Yet, RNS had little, if any, power over nonsensical administrative moves, but administrators made sure a nurse was present when “predetermined measures” were going to proceed, with or without objections by nurses. This frustrated nurses, like myself, who worried about positions being lost so casually with no obvious concern about how a nursing shortage would affect the Baby Boomer generation.
One of the biggest problems with losing RNS over the years became more evident when staffing “critical care units” started becoming very problematic. Another short-sighted fact that was overlooked or ignored by our governments and their enablers.
24-HOUR SHIFTS
According to a CBC News clip (‘Nurses raise alarms about 24-hour shifts’, Dec. 29, 2008) “too many nurses are being required to work 24-hour shifts, raising concerns about staff burnout and patient safety, the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union says.” Additionally, Greg Boone, spokesman for Cape Breton Regional Hospital, said “the facility has had no choice but to keep nursing staff in ICU for 24-hour shifts.”
Boone also said “like all hospitals” the Sydney facility is working with a shortage of “critical care nurses.” The Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union agrees this is a problem but says “hospitals need to find another solution other than 24-hour shifts.”
This article speaks for itself. There is no current legislation preventing employers from forcing nurses to work 24-hour shifts. The “Emergency Act” and “abandonment of patient clause” have been used fairly frequently to force nurses to work these long shifts, putting the safety and well-being of both nurses and patients at risk.
According to a Cape Breton Post commentary (‘Unsafe staffing putting patients at risk,’ Jan. 20, 2024) co-authored by the president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union and the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions, “fewer nurses are staying on the job out of obligation” and “in the past nurses rarely walked away, even when the going got tough or unsafe.”
Two things to note here. One is the nurses’ unions is well aware that “unsafe conditions” have existed “in the past” for many years. The second is that there have been “alarmingly no regulatory limits to the hours a nurse can work continuously” as stated further in that same article.
Shameful.
UNSAFE CONDITIONS
Everyone with any potential influence on governments knew very well about the unsafe conditions under which nurses were struggling to survive. Yet, nothing aggressively was done to protect nurses from copious amounts of abuse from governments who, frankly, didn’t have a clue about the amount of damage they would cause by failing to heed multiple warnings about a nursing shortage crisis that were given as early as 2001.
Only after needless suffering and deaths have governments and their enablers finally woken up to the disastrous mess they have created.
Only now are promises being made to nurses for better working conditions. However, those promises are not likely to materialize anytime soon due to the ongoing, severe nursing shortage, especially in critical care units.
Nurses, according to many studies, should not work more than 12 hours per 24hour period and no more than 40 hours per week for their safety and the safety of their patients. Yet, the newest contract for Nova Scotia nurses will cap the number of consecutive hours at work at 16 and reduce the frequency the 24-hour shifts.
Again, shameful.
COURSE CHANGE NEEDED
We are what we leave behind for our children and their children. If what has happened to our health-care system is any indication of how we are doing as a society, I believe we had better change course very soon.
On a personal note, I wish to thank Dr. Mike Macdonald, the nursing staff, paramedics and personal care staff for the excellent care my husband recently received in the emergency department.
As stretchers line the halls of the ER at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, with wait times still exceeding the norms, reassuring faces practice their unique crafts, caring for the sick and calming anxious family members. They truly are the real heroes in our troubled health-care system.