Some nurses concerned that staffing shortages will continue due to burn out as COVID-19 beds fill fast

MONTREAL -

"We're very angry and we're going to lose more nurses," said nurse Joanne Scullion from St. Mary's Hospital in the middle of a 16-hour shift.

She said five nurses did not show up for work due to illness and chronic fatigue with some working 10 days straight.

The staff shortage comes as hospitalizations continue to rise coming close to 1,000 on Thursday with 138 of those in the intensive care ward.

Scullion has been working for 20 years as a licensed practical nurse and said Premier Francois Legault is not addressing the issue that has led to nurses burning out, which she said is working conditions.

"Patients-to-nurse ratio! Giving us that $15,000 is going to do nothing," she said. "The $10,000 is payable on the eve of the provincial election. We're not idiots. We're very angry and we're going to lose more nurses."

Scullion is referring to Premier Francois Legault's announcement in September that public full-time nurses will receive a one-time $15,000 bonus along with part-time nurses who switch to full-time.

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BED SHORTAGE

The situation for Scullion and the province's health-care professionals seems about to get worse.

With the increase in cases related to the Omicron variant, the Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) is concerned that Quebec's hospital capacity could be exceeded as early as January, potentially requiring a shift to a fourth level of relief.

In its Thursday update, the INESSS explained that "within 3 weeks, the occupancy of regular beds for COVID patients could reach approximately 1,600 beds and therefore exceed level 3."

This scenario is the result of one of its two prediction models. The second model is even more pessimistic, predicting "about 2,100 regular beds."

In the intensive care unit, the number of patients could approach the limit with 300 beds used, or cross it with 375 beds, the latter number "exceeding the thresholds observed in previous waves".

However, the Institute states that these hospitalizations could be reduced "by the intensification of vaccination efforts and by the impact of sanitary measures recently implemented or to be implemented."

Scullion says the province should be looking at how to do things differently including the possibility of putting more PABs (personal care attendants) into the system to help shoulder some of the burden nurses are under.

She does not think bringing COVID-19 positive nurses back to work is not a great idea.

"Who's going to decide who's well enough to work?" asked Scullion. "Some functionary in the CIUSSS. We have some managers in departments that are not even nurses."

She said her staff is working hard, but she knows that those that are sick deserve better.

"We're doing our best," she said. "We're really doing our best and it's not fair to the patients." 

-- With reporting from CTV News reporter Andrew Brennan.

-- With files from The Canadian Press.

 

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