ED Qhc Nursing Jun15 Lh

7/31/2019 ED Qhc Nursing Jun15 Lh

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Egberts pic

Nursing vacancies at QHC hospitals

Registered nurses (as of June 14):

14 internal transfer vacancies (five full-time)

17 external vacancies (seven full-time, all to staff new

intenstive care beds)

Part-time recruitment remains a problem.

Registered practical nurses:

Two external part-time jobs

Two part-time, one full-time job open internally

Total overtime (all positions, April and May): 3,783

Nurses account for most of the overtime.

Reduction from same period in 2011: 12 per cent

Source: QHC

HIGH OVERTIME: Reduced, but still stressful

Fixing QHC nursing a work in progress

LUKE HENDRY

The Intelligencer

The nursing rollercoaster at Quinte Health Care hospitals

continues, with thousands of hours of overtime and stress

still plaguing staff and finances.

Two months after pronouncing an end to a years-long

nursing shortage, senior staff this week stood by their


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statistics but said they still have problems to solve.

They were responding to staff complaints to The

Intelligencer that the working environment wasnt as good

as QHCs board was told in April.President and chief executive officer Mary Clare Egberts

said QHC has, at times, been staffed fully but nursing

numbers vary daily depending on leaves, other absences

and job postings.

Im not saying its easy, said Egberts. They have

tremendously stressful and pressurized jobs. We do admit

that overtime and sick time is still a problem.

She said reducing overtime and sick leave this year is ahuge focus for QHC.

Most of the shortage centres around registered nurses,

though there are a few registered practical nurse vacancies.

At that months board meeting, staff and the president of

the local unit of the Ontario Nurses Assoc. announced

there had been major improvements in nursing numbers

and that there was less stress and overtime.The relatively sunny forecast outraged some staff.

A few spoke on condition of anonymity, saying there is a

fear of retribution against staff who speak out.

We work short probably 50 per cent of the time, which

means the nurses dont get breaks, said one registered

practical nurse.

The public needs to know that we do work short. Thats

why sometimes, when you ring a bell, there isnt a nurse

right there. We have too many patients with too many

complex needs. Were exhausted. Its the patients that

suffer.

When you have a cancer patient thats vomiting and all


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you can do is go in and hang some Gravol (intravenous

medicine) because you dont have time to hold their hand,

give them a cold facecloth and talk to them thats where

its more than upsetting. I think its a disgrace.She added complaints through union channels have failed

to produce results. The nurse said her unit manager does

her best to help.

She does try to get us extra staff but everybodys working

so much overtime that they dont always want to come in

when theyre called.

Overtime is atrocious, said a secretary on Belleville

General Hospitals surgical floor, calling the staffingsituation very bad and the administrations view

unbelievable.

In one case, she said, We had five nurses for a day shift

when we normally have 11 Surgeries are cancelled

because theyre no staff to look after the patients.

Communications director Susan Rowe said some surgeries

have been cancelled due to emergencies or because othersurgeries took longer than needed.

It is not due to being short-staffed, but because of urgent

situations that have come up during the day, Rowe said.

Joanne Dodds, the Ontario Nurses Associations Belleville

representative at QHC, said the environment is generally on

the upswing. The union represents registered nurses; the

Canadian Auto Workers union represents registered

practical nurses.

I think over the past few years people are happier, said

Dodds. Its still very busy but I think it is getting better.

Dodds also oversees grievances. She declined to discuss

details of those grievances but said most are resolved


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without the need for arbitration.

She said an earlier ONA statement that staffing has

improved was correct but that some misconstrued it as

meaning there were no problems.As of Thursday, there were 14 RN internal vacancies, five

of them for full-time jobs. Thats in addition to 17

vacancies including seven full-time posted outside

QHC. All seven full-time external vacancies are to staff

new beds in the intensive care unit.

Despite that, Rowe said overtime is down by 12 per cent

compared to the same time period last year for all positions.

However, she said, most of the overtime has been bynurses.

Dodds and Egberts said some departments are faring better

than others. The emergency, intensive care and medical

units tend to have more shortages, Dodds said. Egberts said

thats being addressed and this year, QHC will work with

staff to streamline procedures and other parts of the

working day. She said the resulting efficiency will easepressure on workers.

Egberts also said shes willing to meet with staff who say

theyre afraid to air their concerns.

She said QHC is putting a huge focus on reducing sick

time and overtime.

We still understand it is too high, she said. Thats not

only being a financial drain on the hospital more

importantly, we know thats a huge stress on our staff.

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ED Qhc Nursing Jun15 Lh