Quebec faces nursing shortage as fourth wave hits the province

MONTREAL (CityNews) – Quebec nurses are under pressure as the province braces for a massive shortage amid the fourth wave of COVID-19.

More than 4,000 nurses are missing from the public system, and concerns are being raised possibly closing ers in certain regions.

“With nurses burning out. And with hospitalizations increasing again. It’s becoming tougher,” explained Naveed Hussain, an internal medicine nurse working with COVID patients.

“We have nurses that have to take care of the 250 patients and nurses also that went home because they think its too tough. And I understand it’s like ‘the chicken and the egg.’ Because we’re missing some nurses, the remaining ones have to work harder. So that’s why it becomes, we have to add some nurses in order to improve the working conditions,” said Premier Legault.

Nurses are often working in environments with forced overtime due to the labour shortage. Just in Montreal’s southwest district of public health – 400 nurses and 100 auxiliary nurses are needed.

“When you end up being short-staffed, you end up having a greater patient load. These patients each have a complexity of care that you need to be able to identify and make sure you’re administering care appropriately. When you have more patients, that becomes harder to do and it’s harder to create a human connection with them because you end up just rushing things,” said Hussain.

“It’s psychologically demanding, and it’s physically demanding. So combine those two and you have the result of burnout and that’s what people are experiencing,” explained Dr. Michel de Marchie, an ICU physician at the Jewish General Hospital.

“It puts huge stress on the whole system and the population sees this and they start to lose confidence. We’ve got to take huge measures and really go forward,” said Jeff Begley, president at Fédération de la Santé et des Services Sociaux.

All healthcare workers in Quebec are being mandated to get vaccinated, two doses by Oct. 15 or they’ll be suspended without pay.

The Premier says they’re looking at incentives to draw nurses to the public system and even get some out of retirement.

“The nursing staff have done an admirable job, not only the nursing staff, but technicians, the people who clean, everybody has been at this pandemic. So I do understand. But again we have to continue the work,” said Dr. de Marchie.

“I know we’ll make it through, but hopefully the government finds ways to help alleviate the nurses plate at the moment and help bring new staff in to help us to overcome the fourth wave and in general get healthcare back going again,” added Hussain.