Nurses asked to work extra shifts as illness, staff shortages overwhelm ERs

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This article was published 20/12/2023 (627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ADMINISTRATORS at two Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms are pleading with exhausted nurses to voluntarily pick up extra shifts as staff shortages and respiratory illnesses make it tough to fill holiday scheduling.

Further evidence of the desperate situation is a call by the Manitoba Nurses Union and Manitoba Health Coalition for additional mask mandates in hospitals and medical clinics to reduce the amount of sickness that’s been afflicting health workers, patients and visitors.

In an urgent memo to community nurses Monday, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says it is looking for nurses to work in the Grace Hospital ER and the St. Boniface Hospital ER on day, evening and night shifts Dec. 18 to 27. They would be in addition to nurses’ regular shifts.

“Your support is crucial in ensuring that we can provide quality patient care during these busier times of the year,” stated the memo by Pat Younger, WRHA executive director of community health services, and Christine Bonatsos, executive director of HR with community health services.

“We understand that this is short notice and your willingness to assist is immensely appreciated.”

The memo says volunteers would get additional compensation, including overtime pay, if applicable, shift premiums of $6 per hour or 15 per cent above normal pay rates, work disruption allowance and evening and weekend shift premiums, if applicable.

It could mean a nurse would earn between $25 to $50 more per additional shift. The average nurse earns $42/hr.

The request was made one day after the nurses union posted an SOS on social media it had received from a senior nurse at the Health Sciences Centre ER.

“HSC’s adult ER is drowning,” the nurse told MNU. “Our wait times are exceeding 30 hours. We are now moving patients out of resuscitation — to make room for critical patients — into unmonitored hallways.

“These are practices we have never stooped to before and, to be clear, not a single nurse is comfortable with this new practice.”

The nurse added “someone will die unnecessarily. The fact no one has in the last month is a testament to the strength of our team, as well as pure luck.”

Union president Darlene Jackson said the urgent memo and SOS underscore the current problems after years of cuts to nurses’ ranks by the previous Tory government.

“The memo is reflective of the gravity of the nursing shortage,” Jackson said.

“The SOS post on our social media (on Monday) echoes exactly what the current reality is in Manitoba ER’s at present.”

Jackson said a similar loss of nurses was experienced in the wake of the Progressive Conservative government of Gary Filmon and the build up under NDP premiers Gary Doer and Greg Selinger.

She estimated the system is short about 2,800 nurses.

“It took 10 years to get our health care system back after the cuts in the 1990s and it will take that long again,” she said.

“We’ll have to hold our breath and hope we get through it.”

Jackson, and Thomas Linner, provincial director of the health coalition, said mandating mask use in hospitals and medical clinics by more than just health staff during appointments would make sense.

“I think masking up in health care facilities is a good idea. That’s where the sickest people in town are,” she said.

Linner said short-term measures the province could adopt to alleviate stress on the system include: instituting a mask mandate, encouraging COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, and making RSV vaccines free to seniors.

“We may be missing an opportunity to set up these (vaccination) clinics in malls when they are busy during Christmas season,” he said. “There are only 15 per cent of people fully vaccinated. It’s a joke.”

Health minister Uzoma Asagwara said increasing the mandatory use of masks in health care settings is off the table for now.

Last week, the minister and Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, encouraged Manitobans to wear masks if they are symptomatic and have to go out in public.

“We have the public health expertise right here in Manitoba that doesn’t think at this time that is a policy that needs to be implemented,” the minister said.

As for the memo asking community nurses to pick up shifts, Asagwara called that a proactive move to identify who could work extra shifts, if needed.

“That memo was sent out as part of planning for surges,” they said. “To be honest, I have to commend leadership for being proactive in their approach for staffing.

“I can assure people our emergency departments are staffed and people are providing quality care and the best care they can for Manitobans 24/7.”

A WRHA spokeswoman verified both Grace and St. Boniface have recently had high volumes of patients in emergency.

“Over the past few days, intensive care and medicine units at both sites have been stretched for capacity,” she said. “As a result, (emergency department) wait times and in-patient bed capacity throughout the system continue to be challenged.”

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A Shared Health spokeswoman said the HSC emergency room had 164 patients on Saturday, above the daily average of 137.8 in December, causing a temporary overcapacity of its six resuscitation beds.

“When this occurs, stable patients may be temporarily moved to a hallway and monitored by staff to ensure we can continue to provide care to the most critically ill patients,” she said.

While the average number of patients to the Grace ER was in line with the monthly average of 81 daily patients, the number of acutely ill patients was higher.

At St. Boniface, the overall number of emergency patients was higher than average on both Friday and Saturday: 119 compared to 108.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.