The flawed scheduling system is impeding consistent and safe staffing on units and in facilities. I highlighted that the exorbitant price tag of this project, now exceeding over $250,000,000 and counting, could have been spent to build new hospitals/health facilities, hire more nurses, and retain the ones we have now, but instead we have an information management system that can’t manage to keep up with two of the former regions, let alone an entire province.

 

“I honestly don’t know where to begin, but as an RN, who is saving lives daily and pouring my heart and soul into this job and then not getting paid and not being supported or acknowledged is insanity. What more do we have to say or do to get the support and accountability that we need? Sincerely, a heartbroken RN fighting for her and her family’s wellbeing.”
– SUN member, Your Voice.
 

I also stressed how critical it is that we address what’s happening in our province’s largest emergency rooms. Royal University Hospital has dominated the news lately. Their constant state of overcapacity and unsafe hallway nursing is leading to chaos and, as members frequently describe it, a “moral and humanitarian failure”.

We talked about SUN member concerns with the relabeling of existing beds as “new” at City Hospital as one of the SHA’s main solutions. I emphasized the urgent need to focus on issues like mental health services, access to a primary care NP or family physician for everyone, reliably staffed and open rural facilities, more home care services, and addressing the state of seniors’ care, which is resulting in far too many alternate level of care patients in hospital acute care beds. At any given moment, there are 90 or more seniors “stuck” in a hospital, risking serious negative outcomes, without a place to live safely in the community.

Finally, we talked about putting a stop to workplace violence. Health care needs a culture change to ensure violence is no longer normalized. CFNU recently launched a new whitepaper, detailing how prevalent the violence nurses face everyday is: Canada’s unions tell health ministers: violence is not part of the job Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. This was provided to the health ministers from across Canada.

I will leave you with an excerpt from one of the countless “Your Voice” emails coming in from SUN members. This one struck a chord as I was writing this message today, because it touches on it all – the moral distress, the burnout, the worry for patients, the overcrowded facilities and excessive workloads, and the violence.


“During one of my recent shifts, I went from performing CPR on a patient in a hallway to having objects thrown at me by a delirious elderly person. I then had to assist in restraining this individual — someone’s parent — right in front of other patients, families, and staff. That same patient had been left for three days in a loud, overstimulating hallway, directly in front of the nurses’ station.

Why am I doing life-saving interventions in hallways? Why am I restraining vulnerable patients in public areas? Why are our colleagues being attacked by patients experiencing hospital-induced delirium, which is on the rise? This is not safe. It’s not humane. And it’s not care I would wish upon anyone. What we are experiencing is not just burnout — it’s moral injury.
 

There’s a lot of work to do to get Saskatchewan’s health system back on track, and SUN will keep pushing those who have the power to make these changes happen.  

In solidarity,

Bryce Boynton, RN
SUN President