OP-ED: Enough is enough
In recent weeks, we have learned of many situations at Fredericton’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital that are beyond concerning for patient and nurse safety.
When nurses experience issues that violate policies and practices or make it impossible for them to meet their professional obligations, they are encouraged to complete Work Situation Reports. Between December and early January, more Work Situation Reports have been filed by DECRH nurses than were completed in the past 6 months.
Late last week, I met virtually with nurses at the DECRH to hear firsthand about the situations they have endured in recent weeks. The situations I heard about during that meeting were comparable to third-world healthcare delivery.
As most recognize, nursing care is very specialized; a nurse is not a nurse is not a nurse. Chronic short staffing is necessitating that administration has to come up with quick fixes, however as an example, administration cannot ‘float’ a labour and delivery nurse to the ER and expect her to provide the same level of care that an experienced ER nurse is trained to provide. I heard many instances of nurses being assigned patients they don’t have the training or competency to care for, even though they are pushing back and saying they can’t do so.
While staffing shortages are not new, blatant disregard for protocols that put patients and nurses at risk cannot be tolerated. These situations are not something our nurses should have to deal with, nor are they situations that patients should have to endure; and many residents of the area are coming forward to share their own personal experiences.
This week, members of the DECRH Local, NBNU staff and hospital leadership will meet to review these Work Situation Reports. We hope this sheds light on these dire situations and will result in resolutions to issues, but leadership, at all levels, needs to commit to real changes.
We call on government to immediately invest in filling vacancies to address staffing shortages and on the health authority to do whatever they can to ensure these situations don’t reoccur. New Brunswickers deserve better.
Maria Richard is 1st Vice-President of the New Brunswick Nurses Union (NBNU), a labour organization of approximately 8 900 nurses who are employed in various healthcare facilities throughout the province of New Brunswick.
