U of W students advocate for elimination of sick notes

Sick notes sought for missed exams and other student absences are under growing scrutiny.

Doctors Manitoba is shifting its advocacy efforts to continue reducing its members’ paperwork now that the province is on track to restrict when employers can request documentation.

Against the backdrop of these changes, the University of Winnipeg is reconsidering the patchwork approach to managing student absences on its campuses.

Dr. Nichelle Desilets said it’s a worthwhile exercise, given the status quo — inconsistent sick-note practises between and within schools — is onerous for everyone involved.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to have an impact on all three sides of the equation: the inappropriate use of physician services, where we’re not necessarily adding any medical value; the stress and burden put onto the student; as well as the followup and management done on the institutions’ side,” said Desilets, the outgoing president of Doctors Manitoba.

Desilets oversaw the launch of the “Sick of Sick Notes” campaign last spring. Workplaces were the primary target because they generate the overwhelming majority of requests for documentation.

“But the education sector, when you take into account all the public schools, all the post-secondary institutions, that adds up,” said Desilets, a family physician from Neepawa.

The University of Manitoba, home to the province’s only medical school, introduced self-declaration forms to address temporary student absences in 2022.

Its students can fill out a form in lieu of seeking a medical note if they are sick on an exam day, along with a list of other reasons that result in an absence lasting up to 120 hours or five days.

“Students shouldn’t have to visit a doctor just to prove they were sick for a day,” said Harleen Deol, a U of W student who had to submit formal documentation to a professor this winter to prove she was in no shape to complete a term test.

Deol said professors who choose to require sick notes place unnecessary stress on students, especially international students who don’t have a family doctor.

In her role as an executive on the U of W students association, she’s been advocating for rules that don’t make students panic and expose others to illness to see a doctor.

Doctors Manitoba estimates its members write more than 600,000 sick notes — roughly one-third of which are issued when a patient doesn’t have symptoms — every year.

It has long called for the province to legislate the elimination of this documentation “across all sectors.”

The Kinew government responded with Bill 11. The legislation, which is headed to committee on May 12, bans employers from requiring a doctor’s note for short-term absences related to illness or injury.

It will only allow them to request documentation when an employee is missing for more than a week or they’ve already called in sick on 10 or more workdays in a calendar year.

Four people, including Dr. Desilets, have registered to weigh in on the proposed changes at committee.

Doctors Manitoba’s new toolkit for managing absences in the workplace has proved “eye-opening,” said Val Pelleck, a faculty member in the U of W kinesiology and applied health department.

Pelleck noted the employee-employer relationship is not all that different from the professor-student relationship.

A series of recent misconduct cases involving sick notes have motivated her and fellow members of a senate subcommittee to develop a policy on student absenteeism.

“Perhaps an institutional policy could’ve avoided some of the misguided decisions made on the part of students,” Pelleck said.

While noting schools of all kinds manage their own attendance policies, a government spokesperson said the province is continuing to work with Doctors Manitoba to reduce “unnecessary paperwork” to free up physicians for patient care.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca