Respiratory illness pushes Children’s Hospital to limit

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This article was published 01/03/2024 (910 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Children’s Hospital intensive-care unit is overflowing and nearly all inpatient beds are full owing to a surge of respiratory viruses.

Nurses are barely keeping their heads above water as they try to keep up with the stream of ill youngsters, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said.

“It’s a situation that’s not improving there. It seems to be worsening and nurses are absolutely exhausted,” she said Friday.

As of 12:10 a.m. Friday, there were 21 children in the pediatric ICU, the majority of whom have significant symptoms consistent with influenza, RSV and COVID-19, said Shared Health. The hospital’s baseline pediatric ICU capacity is 12.

A 10-bed overflow unit had to be opened Wednesday as inpatient units are at, or near, capacity.

Forty patients were in the neonatal intensive-care unit as of Friday. Its baseline capacity is 50 patients.

The pressure to keep up with the number of patients has been intense, Jackson said. Nurses are being asked to pick up 16-hour shifts while others are being mandated to extend their 12-hour work day.

“You cannot sustain work hours like that for a long period of time, you just can’t,” Jackson said. “Something has to be done. We can’t maintain this.”

Amanda Pineda, the executive director of health services, agreed staff at Children’s Hospital have been stressed and stretched thin during this months-long respiratory virus season. However, it’s too soon to say if the surge of admissions that began in the fall will slow down in the near future, she said.

“We’re so appreciative of their extra shifts and the hours that they’ve picked up,” Pineda said.

Fifteen nurses from the ambulatory care and recovery areas, who were reassigned in December to the pediatric ICU, continue to pull double-duty. Nurses and allied health staff are picking up extra shifts to get through this wave of illness, she said.

“We’ve been here before, we’ve done this before. This isn’t new,” Pineda said. “Our focus right now is to ensure that all our pediatric patients do continue to receive the care that they need.”

Several nurses have been recruited to join the pediatric ICU — which has been overcapacity for months — but the reinforcements will not be on the front-line right away, Pineda said. Other recruitment efforts are ongoing.

Over the past month, some surgeries for stable patients were delayed while waiting for space to open in the pediatric ICU, but the hospital was not aware of any cancellations owing to capacity constraints, as of Friday.

Emergency room visits, meanwhile, averaged 126 patients per day in February, up seven per cent from January, but within the normal range for this time of year, Shared Health said.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said like nurses, respiratory therapists in the hospital are struggling with too few staff and the workload this winter has been brutal.

“We have shortages throughout the system for respiratory therapy… and when it gets busy the number of people doing the work doesn’t increase,” the union leader said. “When the volume picks up, the work becomes much more difficult.”

Linklater said workforce planning for respiratory therapists to meet demand, particularly during cold and flu season, has fallen short.

“Arguably, at this point in time, retention is more important than recruitment. They need to really focus on providing the staff the supports they need and the conditions they need to do their jobs and do them well,” Linklater said.

Pineda said the hospital has contingency plans to ensure adequate staffing to care for kids if demand continues to be high. Families should trust the hospital has “got this,” she said.

“I would like the public and I want our families to be confident that we are able to care for their loved ones, their children and the pediatric population throughout,” Pineda said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca