Exhausted nurses lament the chaotic and dangerous situation in Santa Cabrini Hospital’s emergency room after working more than 40 hours and getting very little sleep over the past weekend.
“It’s a mess, but a mess… Yes, it’s a holiday, but that’s abuse! the auxiliary nurse Marguerite Denis rages, exhausted at the end of the line. It’s dangerous, we end up escaping a patient. It is save.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” adds his colleague Lydia David, a nurse. I had trouble concentrating, I had trouble reading. The risk of making mistakes is really big because I’m so tired.
The two women worked 44.5 hours and 42 hours, respectively, between Friday evening and Monday morning in the emergency room at Santa Cabrini Hospital in the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie area.
“We are all exhausted”
A weekend that “makes no sense,” they say, because the workload for the few employees on duty was so great.
“There are many people who are tired, we are all exhausted,” laments Ms. David, 36.
“We don’t have a break because we’re not being replaced. “Patients keep coming and we don’t have any staff,” adds Ms. Denis, a single mother. I got myself a glass of water but didn’t have a lunch break!”
Although she is used to working 12 hours straight, Ms. Denis admits that last weekend was problematic. The 39-year-old worked from 7:30 p.m. Friday evening to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Arriving at her South Coast home around 12:30 p.m., she was able to sleep (and wash and eat) for about four hours before returning to the hospital at 7:30 p.m. She then worked 16.5 hours and was finished by Sunday lunchtime.
That same evening, Ms. Denis started working again at 7:30 p.m. until Monday morning, 7:30 a.m.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she said. Usually I work very fast, I’m a fast, organized and structured person. But there I was completely lost. I was beside my shoes.
solidarity between them
According to these workers, the staffing shortage at Santa Cabrini’s ER today is glaring. Because a nurse cannot leave her job when there is no one to represent her, there is a lot of pressure to stay longer.
“I didn’t think I was going to leave my colleagues in the shit,” Ms. Denis admits. If I hadn’t stayed I don’t know what they would have done.
“We agree to stay because we feel bad and so many people are missing and we don’t want to leave our colleagues alone,” admits Lydia David, who says she was forced to work overtime on Monday morning.
According to the two women, the emergency room simply cannot function without overtime. The local Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) union is well aware of the situation and says it requested a meeting with management on Monday to draw up an action plan.
“What I regret is that it’s predictable. […] The summer season comes as no surprise, says Kamal Kial, vice president of the union (FIQ) at the East Montreal Integrated University Center for Health and Human Services. Next weekend should be just as difficult.”
According to the latter, these poor working conditions have a negative impact on staff retention.
“We build the public network locally,” he adds. Mr. Kil.
For its part, the management of the CIUSSS replies that the overtime worked last weekend was voluntary. By email, they explain that they can listen and prefer to engage in dialogue with employees to find solutions to staffing issues that affect the entire network. Last May, the management of the CIUSSS, which includes the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, sent out an internal memo stressing that any “sit-in” by staff would be the subject of a court action.
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