Nurses union says 83% of its members report staffing shortage as fresh COVID-19 wave looms
CBC
Saskatchewan's nurses are on edge as the province veers toward what experts have said is a seventh wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the province.
There's a fear that the health-care system isn't prepared for what might lie ahead.
One of the largest issues is proving to be staffing, according to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN),
"We know that there is a shortage. We know there are problems, our members have told us that," said Denise Dick, first vice president of SUN.
The union, which oversees 10,000 registered nurses, nurse practitioners and registered psychiatric nurses in the province, recently publish data it collected this spring.
It shows that 83 per cent of SUN's members reported vacant positions in their units, a figure that is more than double the 40 per cent who reported vacant positions last year
Dick says nurses have faced staffing shortages in Saskatchewan for years. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made it worse.
Now, 58 per cent of SUN's members say they've considered stepping away from registered nursing in the past 12 months.
"People, like the numbers say, aren't willing to work like that anymore. They don't want to sustain that. They can't sustain it," Dick said.
Officials with the Saskatchewan Health Authority confirmed to Radio-Canada that some health-care workers have left the province while others have decided to leave the field altogether.
While the SHA declined to provide specific figures it did say it is working on solutions to address the issue.
"That's part of our overall [human resources] strategy: To identify how can we retain the employees that we have to create a good, positive working environment, but also look at recruitment opportunities, whether that's internationally or promoting locally," said John Ash, executive director of urban acute care with the SHA.
For the short term that also means tracking staff absenteeism and managing any shortages that do happen.
Measures could include service disruptions if certain facilities or areas don't have the ability to provide a service due to staffing issues.
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