Nurses are working more overtime than ever before

Article content

As we start 2024, patients are still waiting in hallways to receive care, surgeries continue to be delayed, our community and rural emergency departments continue to see temporary closures, and seniors’ care continues to suffer despite the lessons of COVID-19. Much of this can be attributed to the nurse staffing shortage that, sadly, is routine news in health care settings across B.C.

Article content

In B.C., nursing job vacancies are now at a record high. The most recent numbers from Statistics Canada are alarming, reporting 5,745 nurse vacancies, making it increasingly difficult for nurses to meet people’s health care needs.

Article content

Without adequate staff to care for patients, nurses are working more overtime than ever, with some working 16 to 24 hours continuously. Our nurses are telling us that this isn’t just breaking them, but severely impacting patient care.

The impact of not being able to give each patient the time and care they deserve is morally distressing. This reality is the reason why so many are choosing to leave the profession.

Emergency departments in smaller communities frequently experience temporary closures due to staffing shortages, forcing patients to travel longer distances or to be transferred to other communities for care.

The use of overtime to fill core staffing needs is not only short-sighted, it’s downright dangerous. A new study, Safe Hours Save Lives,  from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions confirms what many of us have feared: excessive hours of continuous work have a profound impact on nurse fatigue. The study connects the dots between overtime, fatigue, and nurse and patient safety in Canada.

Article content

Article content

Research shows that fatigue has effects similar to alcohol intoxication, posing long-term health risks such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence linking overtime to safety incidents in health care. Canadian data shows that the rate of hospital harm has increased from pre-pandemic rates, with one in 17 hospital stays involving at least one harmful event.

So how do we protect nurses and patients from the potentially dire effects of extreme overtime demands?

Alarmingly, there are no regulatory limits to the hours a nurse can work continuously. By contrast, pilots can only work a maximum of 13 hours — a mechanism that protects both pilots and the safety of passengers.

This is a critical place to start. We must establish legislation and regulatory limits on consecutive work hours for nurses, mirroring the safeguards already in place for other safety-sensitive industries. Patients are surely as important as airline passengers.

Fixing the nursing shortage is not just about adding more nurses to the system; it’s about addressing the conditions that have created this dire crisis. This is the key to creating environments where nurses and patients can thrive.

Article content

Relying on excessive overtime or costly private agencies as short-term fixes only exacerbates the systemic challenges facing health care. We can’t continue to slap Band-Aids on gaping wounds.

Nurse-led solutions such as minimum nurse-patient ratios offer two-fold success: safe staffing levels have been shown to improve patient safety and would also address the top reason nurses are looking for the exit sign — insufficient staffing.

We are optimistic the province’s health human resources strategy offers some long-term solutions that will address the staff shortage. But the government must hold provincial health employers accountable and demand that they provide safe and respectful workplaces. We believe that improved working conditions will bring nurses back to the profession, help increase retention, and bolster the current recruitment effort that will ultimately put an end to the years-long shortage of nurses in B.C. and across the country.

Adriane Gear is the president of the B.C. Nurses’ Union and Linda Silas is the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

Article content

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.

Article content