A poll was released by the Hospital Employees Union showing that over a 3rd of healthcare staff were looking to leave the field in BC.
BC Nurses Union President Aman Grewal said this tracks with statistics they’ve gathered.
“We conducted one as well, and it’s very similar in what the findings were, however, our poll did find there was a slightly higher rate of those intending to leave.”
“Our nurses are struggling. We just heard yesterday (Wednesday) at Boundary District Hospital, that they are shutting down the 12 acute care medical beds that they have, redeploying their staff to keep their emergency room operational, and transferring the patients that are in those 12 beds to other facilities, or being discharged home.”
Grewal said there were some major systemic issues that need to be addressed in the industry, noting that more needs to be done to improve worker retention, recruitment, work/life balance, and to fix toxic workplaces.
She added that there were some nurses who were afraid to go to work due to some of the violence seen in hospitals, and wanted to remind people to be more compassionate.
“Show respect to the nurses. They deserve to be respected, they deserve to be cared for, just like everyone else, and they have borne the brunt of the pandemic and the staffing crisis, and show them some love.”
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