Nurses give NDP failing grade on working conditions
'There's been no significant improvement at all in culture in spite of the campaign promises,' said Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses' Union, which surveyed its 13,000 members last month.
The NDP campaigned on a promise to fix health care and fill desperate staffing shortages that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic owing to high rates of burnout.
After winning a majority government in late 2023, the NDP launched a 'listening tour' at hospitals around the province, promising to respect staff and listen to their ideas and address their concerns.
'There's been no significant improvement at all in culture in spite of the campaign promises,' said Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses' Union. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
'There's been no significant improvement at all in culture in spite of the campaign promises,' said Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses' Union. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
Results from the union's workplace culture survey indicate they haven't been acted upon. While 15 per cent of the nearly 1,500 respondents said their workplace culture has improved, 34 per cent said it's the same and 44 per cent said it has worsened.
'I think it has a huge impact on whether nurses will stay, whether they'll go, retire, or pick up additional shifts,' Jackson said in an interview.
More than 60 per cent said they struggle with their mental wellness on a weekly basis or more often, and that their struggles are caused mainly by a heavy workload, job stress and negative communication with management.
'The feeling is when you do bring something to a manager, you're disregarded,' Jackson said.
'The manager doesn't look seriously at what your solution is,' she said. 'There's a lack of acknowledgement that you're a professional and know what you're doing.'
Jackson said some managers downplay incidents involving workplace safety, such as the widely reported attack in a tunnel at the Health Sciences Centre earlier this month. It was referred to as 'groping and inappropriate touching' rather than calling it what it was — a sexual assault, Jackson said.
'Downplaying it is incredibly disrespectful to that nurse and her colleagues,' said the union president. 'It's downplaying these unsafe workplace incidents that nurses find so disheartening,' Jackson said.
Safety measures that have been put in place — such as beefing up parkade patrols, hiring institutional safety officers and installing weapons scanners — haven't kept pace with the severity and frequency of incidents that nurses are forced to confront, Jackson said.
Most of the measures were implemented after the employer was compelled to do so by an arbitrator or after an 'incident' occurred, rather than pre-emptively, she said.
'That is the most frustrating thing: these are employers that do not take safety of staff and patients and visitors as seriously as we take it,' Jackson said.
Responding to the MNU survey Tuesday, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the government remains committed to listening to nurses 'even when the feedback is negative feedback.'
'We're going to continue to listen and take action based on their ideas and solutions and prioritize them feeling better about their jobs and the calling they chose as a career,' said Asagwara, a psychiatric nurse.
The minister cited an example of listening, then taking action, after hearing directly from nurses at the HSC pediatric intensive care unit.
'They needed more beds, more capacity in order to provide life-saving care to our youngest and sickest Manitobans,' Asagwara said. 'We took action right away and added ICU beds at the pediatric unit at HSC. That has made a dramatic difference in how they provide care.'
The government has given 'clear direction to leadership at the highest levels of the health care system' that managers are expected to be 'emotionally intelligent,' listen to the front lines 'and prioritize not only improved patient outcomes but improved workplace experiences of their workers,' Asagwara said.
'I hear every day from families and Manitobans who cannot thank nurses enough for the care that they provide and who want for the conditions they work in to also be better.'
The health minister said it is going to take time to repair the damaged health care system and workplace culture the NDP inherited.
'I ask nurses and Manitobans to bear with us.'
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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Carol SandersLegislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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