Staff shortages prompt health authority's plea for Winnipeg nurses to pull extra shifts
Some nurses will answer the call but majority are burned out: union president
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has sent "urgent memo" to nurses, asking them to help fill shortages in the emergency departments at both Grace Hospital and St. Boniface Hospital.
"It has become evident that we are facing a significant staffing challenge that require[s] immediate attention," reads the memo sent out on Monday by the health authority.
Nurses are needed to work day, evening and night shifts at the hospitals between Dec. 18-27.
"Your support is crucial in ensuring that we can provide quality patient care during these busier times of the year," the memo continues. "We understand that this is short notice, and your willingness to assist is immensely appreciated."
Unlike the mandated overtime that burned out many nurses over the past few years and pushed them to leave the health-care field, Monday's request asks nurses to pick up the shifts voluntarily.
A health authority spokesperson told CBC the memo was not intended to help fill baseline shifts, but to find more staff to help support emergency departments at the Grace and St. Boniface.
"Over the past few days, intensive care and medicine units at both sites have also been stretched for capacity," the spokesperson said, which has resulted in extended wait times and bed capacity issues throughout the system.
The Grace saw a higher-than-average number of critically ill patients over the weekend, the spokesperson said.
So far in December, St. Boniface has also seen more patients overall, and more who are critically ill, than average, they said.
'No flex in our system'
Darlene Jackson, president of the 12,000-member Manitoba Nurses Union, said she was not surprised by the memo.
"We know that Grace emergency has got very high vacancy rates. They're using lots and lots of private agency nurses and we are seeing a real rise in individuals going to the emergency departments with all the respiratory illnesses that are happening.
"This is the holiday season and nurses do want to be off with their families over the holiday season. It's always a time where we do have some staff shortages or some staffing difficulties. This year is especially difficult."
Many nurses are already working overtime shifts at their regular hospitals and health centres, she added.
"There's just no flex in our system at all," Jackson said.
"Now we're coming up to a holiday where nurses are entitled to have either Christmas or New Year's off under their collective agreement, and we're already in a staff shortage and getting more and more critical every day."
Under the MNU's collective agreement, overtime premiums for nurses who help out in the latest bid include an additional $6 an hour or 15 per cent above the normal rate of pay, as well as work disruption allowance and evening/weekend shift premiums.
Nurses 'burned out and overwhelmed'
The WRHA is specifically seeking nurses with previous acute care, medicine or emergency department experience. Recognizing that nurses are already being pushed to the limit, the memo says volunteers will be assigned low acuity tasks.
A Shared Health spokesperson told CBC News on Wednesday that CEO Lanette Siragusa, who is a registered nurse in the province, worked a "buddy" shift to support nurses in the Health Sciences Centre's emergency department last month.
"While Ms. Siragusa's focus is on her executive duties, she remains willing to help however she can over the holidays to support our care teams," they said.
But Jackson said she's not sure how many nurses will answer the call.
"I think some nurses will, but for many that I've talked to, they are feeling so burned out and overwhelmed. They absolutely need time off when they can get it," she said.
"They've had absolutely no rest since COVID first reared its head and there's no rest for them now, because when you go to work, you never know … whether you're going to be mandated to stay for a second shift."
As a result, anyone going into an emergency department over the holidays with a health concern that's not urgent can expect even longer wait times, Jackson said.
There's "bottlenecking" across all emergency departments, she said.
"There are beds — unfortunately, there's just no nurses to open some of those beds. We have very limited front-line staff … and there's really no resource to get them from anywhere else."
In consideration of that, and the rise in respiratory viruses adding to the strain, Jackson said she is open to bringing back a mask mandate in health-care facilities.
"I would be happy to see that come back just because we need our nurses to be as healthy as possible, and we need the public to be as healthy as possible," she said.
"I believe the medical officer of health in this province will make the right decision when the time comes. And if they did make that decision I certainly wouldn't oppose it."
Federal figures suggest there hasn't been a rush on vaccinations by Canadians this fall. Only 15 per cent of the population aged five and up had received an updated vaccine by Dec. 3.
"I think we need to remind the public that COVID is still out there — it's not done with us yet — as is the flu," Jackson said.
"We need to keep ourselves healthy but we also need to keep those people around us healthy."
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With files from Emily Brass