Hundreds of nurses, health-care workers and members of the public gathered at the Legislative Building to rally for patient safety and improvements in health care. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

By CKOM News - Nicole Garn

Healthcare

‘It’s terrifying’: Health-care workers sound alarm at Legislative Building

Oct 4, 2024 | 9:51 AM

Many nurses are fed up with how health care is treated in Saskatchewan.

Hundreds of nurses were joined by other health-care workers and members of the public at a rally outside the Legislative Building in Regina on Thursday.

Stephanie Fehr, a registered nurse who previously worked in the ER at St Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon, said pressure on health care workers is resulting in poor care for patients.

“The weight of the unsafe care that we are being forced to provide by the government and our employer is breaking us,” she said.

Fehr said that for her, going to work is like waiting for a bomb to go off. If a large-scale emergency happened, she said the hospital would not be able to handle it.

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“It’s truly terrifying,” she said. “What happens when a bus crashes or a bomb goes off? Who knows what could happen? We don’t have anywhere to move our patients out so we can safely care for the incoming patients, because all of the spaces are full already.”

Fehr has over a decade of experience as an ER nurse under her belt. But she said the pressure was too much, leading her to leave her role as an ER nurse and move into a clinician role.

She said losing nurses with expertise is also causing issues.

“We’ve lost this big knowledge gap of all of these very valuable, experienced nurses,” she said. “The weight of health care is falling on these junior nurses and, as you heard, they’re quitting six months in.”

Fehr said nurses are at a stand-still and don’t know what to do.

“It’s so heartbreaking for our nurses,” Fehr said. “We’re trying our best, and we aren’t able to give any sort of semblance of safe patient care at all, and that’s making nurses leave. We’re all quitting, and we can’t afford to have all of our health-care workers quit.”

She said nurses are expected to handle far more patients than normal, and in difficult circumstances as space is limited. She said hospitals are understaffed, at capacity, and sometimes running out of equipment as well.

“Not only do we not have supplies to treat our patients, we don’t have space to treat our patients. It’s terrifying,” Fehr said.

The rally made its way down Albert Street to the Legislative Building. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME) Oct. 3, 2024

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, said nurses have been sounding the alarm on health care for years, and raised the issue with the provincial government.

“They haven’t listened to registered nurses,” she said. “We’ve asked them to sit down with us. We’ve sent briefs about how we can fix the workplace. They’ve ignored us.”

She said both the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP were invited to the rally, but only the NDP was in attendance.

Tracy Zambory, President of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, says health-care workers have been sounding the alarm on health care for years, but it’s fallen on deaf ears. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME) Oct. 3, 2024

While politicians are out door-knocking during the provincial election campaign, Zambory encouraged people to ask about the future of health care.

“When someone shows up at your doorstep and wants your vote, they have to earn it,” she said.

“They have to tell you what they’re going to do for health care. They have to tell you what their plan is to solve this nursing crisis. And not only do they have to make the promise of it, they have to put it in writing, because we’re sick and tired of the broken promises that we’ve been putting up with with this government for the last two years.”

As for the health care promises made by NDP leader Carla Beck, Zambory said she wants real action.

‘The devil is always in the details,” she said. “It’s easy to make promises. Registered nurses need to see action.”

Nurse Lisa King echoed Zambory’s statement.

“With the upcoming election, all of us health-care professionals feel the current government isn’t doing enough to address our current problems and needs,” she said.

‘It’s every day, every shift. There’s never a break.”

King said she hopes people take the time to really think about who they’re going to vote for.

“I want people to understand that people are dying on the front lines, in front of our eyes every day, every shift,” she said. “And that the system is broken, and I don’t know how much more broken it can get.”

Lisa King (centre) says there’s no break for health-care workers, and every day there is another challenge to face. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)