In face of pandemic burnout, nurse who left Leamington job says Ontario's promises fall short

Lindsay Pentland says working in a hospital setting as a registered practical nurse during the pandemic caused a "moral injury" she doesn't feel can be healed by the Ontario government's recently promised pay bonus.

Pentland said the $5,000 payment, which is aimed at improving retention in the profession, shows the government acknowledges there's a "crisis," but the funding won't do much to solve the actual problem, she said.

"It will give some nurses a little bump up that they need, but it's not doing anything to assist the moral distress or moral injury, it's not giving us any mental health supports at all, which is tremendously needed, and benefits barely cover any of it," said Pentland, who also expressed concerns around compensation.

For 14 years, Pentland was a nurse at Erie Shores HealthCare (ESHC) in Leamington. Months before COVID-19, she became a union representative, which added to her workload.

In 2021, she left her job to work as a travelling nurse. 

"With the increase of [the number of patients per nurse], it's hard to give the care that we were taught to give," said Pentland, who lives in Wheatley, Ont., and was reached in Fort Albany, Ont.

Pentland describes what many front line health-care workers have faced over the last two years: staffing shortages, heavy workloads, pay equity issues and increasing mental distress.

A spokesperson for Pentland's former employer, Erie Shores HealthCare, acknowledged the "unprecedented levels" of stress that front-line health-care workers faced amid the pandemic, and said that the hospital has supports available through its human resources department.

"Like other hospitals, ESHC has supports for its workers through our human resources department that are communicated broadly internally," a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. "We have many resources to support staff and continue to work on a robust retention and wellness program for April."

The spokesperson said retention and recruitment require "a constant effort" for hospitals, and turnover rates are on par with provincial averages.

The provincial government announced the $5,000 one-time retention bonus last week — an incentive it hopes will help keep nurses in the profession as Ontario continues to recover from the pandemic amid a nursing shortage. 

"As we continue to build up our nursing workforce, this investment will support the nurses we currently have so that Ontarians continue to have access to the care they need during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future," Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a media release last week.

The program will cost $763 million, the province said.

$5K bonus a 'slap in the face:' nurses' union 

Angela Preocanin, first vice-president of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), said the pandemic has caused "catastrophic" damage, and a $5,000 bonus won't encourage people to stick around. 

"It is really a means of just passing along crumbs to say that something has been offered to our nurses," she said. 

"This is really a slap in the face." 

Ontario's Ministry of Health says there's a comprehensive strategy in place to attract and retain health-care professionals.

"The lump sum retention incentive of up to $5,000 per person is only one part of this plan," a ministry spokesperson said in a statement to CBC News.

Under emergency programs, more than 8,450 professionals have been added to the health-care system since March 2020, and high-need hospitals will have the capacity to add 4,000 more by the end of this month.

"These initiatives build on the government's commitment to invest $342 million over the next five years through immediate and longer-term recruitment initiatives which would add over 13,000 workers to Ontario's health-care system. This includes over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nurses and registered practical nurses as well as 8,000 personal support workers."

Preocanin said the union is pushing the government to repeal Bill 124, emphasizing this is a big factor in discouraging nurses. 

The bill, which was enacted in 2019, caps the wage increases of provincial employees, like nurses and teachers, at just one per cent per year, below the rate of inflation.

Preocanin said they're seeing new nurses leave the field before they've even been in it for six months, and also have nurses close to retirement who are deciding to leave prematurely. Many, she said, tell the union they are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

All of this, she said, is making the staffing shortage worse. She said the province is short roughly 22,000 nurses. 

Initiatives like a late-career program, where senior nurses train and mentor incoming nurses, would help, along with certifying international nurses, she said. 

The ONA represents more than 11,000 nurses in southwestern Ontario.