Exhausted nurses lament the messy and dangerous situation in the emergency room of Santa Cabrini hospital after working more than 40 hours last weekend, with very little sleep in their bodies.
“It’s a mess, but a mess… Yes, it’s the holidays, but that’s abuse! rages the auxiliary nurse Marguerite Denis, exhausted at the end of the line. It’s dangerous, we’ll end up escaping a patient. It’s certain.”
“It doesn’t make sense, adds his colleague Lydia David, a nurse. I had trouble concentrating, I had trouble reading. The risk of error is really great because I’m so tired.”
The two women respectively worked 44.5 hours and 42 hours between Friday evening and Monday morning, in the emergency room of the Santa Cabrini hospital, in the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.
“We are all exhausted”
A weekend that “has no meaning”, they say, the workload was so great for the few employees on duty.
“There are plenty of people who are tired, we are all exhausted”, laments Mme David, 36 years old.
“We have no break because we are not replaced. Patients keep coming in, and we don’t have staffadds M.me Denis, a single mother. I went for a glass of water, but I didn’t have a lunch hour!”
Although she is used to working 12 hour shifts, Ms.me Denis admits that the last weekend was problematic. The 39-year-old worked from 7:30 p.m. Friday night to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Arrived at her home on the South Shore around 12:30 p.m., she was able to sleep for about four hours (and wash and eat), before returning to the hospital at 7:30 p.m. She then worked 16.5 hours, and finished at noon on Sunday.
The same evening, Mr.me Denis started working again at 7:30 p.m., until Monday morning, 7:30 a.m.
“It makes no sense,” she said. Usually, I work super fast, I’m a quick, organized and structured person. But there, I was completely lost. I was next to my shoes.
Solidarity between them
According to these employees, the lack of staff at the Santa Cabrini emergency room is glaring these days. Since a nurse cannot leave her workstation if there is no one to replace her, the pressure is strong to stay longer.
“I did not see myself leaving and leaving my colleagues in the shit, admits Mme Dennis. If I hadn’t stayed, I don’t know what they would have done.”
“We agree to stay because we feel bad and there are so many people 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 department simply could not function without overtime. Well aware of the situation, the local union of the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) says it requested a meeting with management on Monday to plan an action plan.
“What I regret is that it is predictable. […] The summer season is not a surprise, reacts Kamal Kial, vice-president of the union (FIQ) of the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center of the East-of-the-Island-of-Montreal. Next weekend is likely to be just as difficult.”
According to the latter, these poor working conditions are detrimental to the retention of staff.
“We are putting the public network on the ground,” adds. Mr. Kial.
For its part, the management of the CIUSSS replies that the overtime was done voluntarily last weekend. By e-mail, they say they demonstrate listening skills and favor dialogue with staff to find solutions to staff shortage issues, which affect the entire network. Last May, the management of the CIUSSS, which also includes the Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, sent an internal note stressing that any “sit-in” by employees would be the subject of a complaint to the court.