The President of the province’s Nurses Union says the health care system is in a “crisis.”
Debbie Forward was responding to the mother of a 10-year-old who recently spend two weeks in the Janeway’s pediatric ICU with influenza.
Amie Richards told VOCM News that in those 14 days, nurses in the ICU pulled four 24-hour shifts. Richards says they would have pulled a fifth, but a manager stepped in to do the shift in addition to her own duties.
Forward has been speaking to nurse staffing levels for some time. She told VOCM Open Line with Darrell Power the problem is serious.
In the past month there have been four 24-hour shifts, five other shifts that extended to 16 to 20 hours overtime, three registered nurses have done up to seven 12-hour shifts in a row, and a number of children who have had to be flown out of province.
She didn’t mince any words in her assessment of the situation. She calls it a crisis. Nurses are exhausted and they’re very concerned about the impact on patient care.
Staffing Ratio Based on National Standards: Eastern Health
Eastern Health says this was the first time in at least ten years that patients at the Janeway’s intensive care unit were sent out of province to receive care.
The health authority says there have been no changes to nursing staffing arrangements at the Janeway’s ICU for years, and the existing staffing ratio is based on national standards of best practice for ensuring quality of care and safety for the children treated there.
Eastern Health says occupancy at the unit fluctuates and from time-to-time there are periods of extremely high demand, as was seen recently, and others when there are very few patients. It says there was a two-week period in March when there were no patients who required care in the unit.
Listen to Debbie Forward speak on VOCM Open Line with Darrell Power, below:
