Manitoba nurses, doctors continue to feel major burnout: Union

The Manitoba Nurses Union continues to raise the alarm as stories of burnout from the worsening nursing shortage and unfavourable working conditions inside hospitals emerge.

President Darlene Jackson says COVID-19 and RSV cases are ramping up at a high rate – ICUs are completely full and are barely staying afloat.

“It’s getting tougher now,” said Jackson. “It’s really worrying what’s happening out there and how nurses are feeling because we are seeing so many nurses leave the profession.”

Jackson says she is hearing so many stories from nurses who want to retire or quit as the workload is leading to extreme burnout.

“The wait times in emergencies are growing every day and that has a lot to do with the beds that aren’t open on the units. There are just so many factors affecting what’s happening in health care,” said Jackson.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the emergency department wait time for patients at St. Boniface Hospital was 13 hours and 45 minutes, Health Sciences Centre, almost 9 hours, and at Grace Hospital over 10 hours. This on the same day the province announced adding 36 acute-care beds at the hospital to reduce wait times.

“This goes someway to starting that trip to building back the capacity that has been stripped out of the system. We hope this is the start to many improvements within the system,” said Dr. Paul Ratana, Emergency Medical Doctor at St. Boniface Hospital.

Manitoba’s Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the wait times are a result of healthcare cuts and closures by the previous PC government.

“It is going to take us time. It is going to take us years to fix the problems that were created under the previous government’s failed approach to healthcare, but the work is being done,” said Asagwara. 

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Julia Riddell says burnout is linked to increased anxiety, depression, and insomnia. She says it’s important to think about healthcare staffing on a long-term scale.

“How do we make sure that our nurses, our doctors, our unit assistants, our clerks, all of our support staff, they are not working mandatory overtime, because we know there is an adverse relationship with patient-care,” said Dr. Riddell.

According to Jackson- the situation will worsen if things don’t change immediately.

“We need to be looking to this government to find some really unique initiatives on how do we retain nurses because that’s our only hope right now is to retain those individuals that we have in the system,” said Jackson.