'It's frustrating, it's hurtful, it's disrespectful': Manitoba nurses rally to raise awareness about critical shortage
For nearly forty years, Kim Fraser worked as a paediatric nurse in Manitoba.
Fraser didn’t have immediate plans for retirement, until she hit a wall last November after working long hours and being denied personal protective equipment (PPE) while on shift.
"I was denied PPE on my point of care risk assessment and that was my final straw,” said Fraser, sitting on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature on Friday for a rally meant to raise awareness on the nursing staff shortage facing Manitoba.
“Had COVID not happened, I probably would still be working,” said Fraser, “But my life and my sanity and my self-preservation was worth it for me to retire.”
The rally was organized by the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU), with retired and active nurses brandishing a sign saying, “Without a nurse, a hospital bed is just a bed."
Organizers said the rally also functioned as a call to action for the province as nurses are stretched thin and some, like Fraser, are leaving the profession entirely.
“We are in a critical nursing shortage," said MNU President Darlene Jackson. "We can’t afford to lose another nurse in this system."
Nurses in Manitoba have been working without a contract for over five years, said Jackson, contributing to ongoing work-life imbalances that are affecting the recruitment and retention of nursing staff.
Jackson said recent efforts to improve staffing levels, specifically a $6 pay premium recently granted to ER nurses, haven’t improved the situation.
“Now we’re seeing nurses move from other areas of the system into ERs, which leaves gaping holes behind them,” said Jackson.
The MNU also sent letters to both candidates in the PC leadership race, Heather Stefanson and Shelly Glover, asking for their commitment in helping nurses if elected premier.
A spokesperson for Heather Stefanson’s leadership team said Stefanson would sign the document. CTV News did not hear back from Shelly Glover’s leadership team.
Christina Woodcock, a nurse currently working in Brandon, participated in Friday’s rally. She said normally there’s a one-to-one ratio for ICU nurse and patients, but that’s not the case right now.
“We’re now doubling patients up because resources are limited and patients are abundant,” said Woodcock.
“If the fourth wave is anything like what’s happening in our neighbouring provinces, I have great trepidation for what that is going to be like for nurses on the frontline,” said Woodcock
Marnie Houston, who needed to go to the Saint Boniface Hospital emergency room on Monday, said she experienced first-hand what current nurse staffing levels means for patients.
“Being as stressed as they are and being as few as they need to be right now, they can’t provide that level of service that we were used to seeing,” said Houston, who describes hearing intercom announcements asking nursing staff to pick up extra shifts.
“I didn’t get that support that I needed,” said Houston, “The nurses don’t have time – they really don’t. That’s the scary part because I know the nurses are there because they care.”
In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for Shared Health Manitoba said “system and clinical leaders have spent much of the summer preparing for the pandemic’s fourth wave” and “intensive bargaining negotiations (with the MNU) are continuing.”
“General wage increases,” the statement read, “along with further measures to support recruitment and retention and improved work/life balance, have been advanced and progress continues.”
Fraser, however, is still concerned for the safety of her former colleagues.
“I have so many friends that are in ICU, I have friends that have been redeployed from their jobs since November of last year with no end in sight,” said Fraser.
“It’s frustrating, it’s hurtful, it’s disrespectful.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
2 military horses that broke free and ran loose across London are in serious condition
Two military horses that bolted and ran miles through the streets of London after being spooked by construction noise and tossing their riders were in a serious condition and required operations, a British government official said Thursday.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.