Exhausted, breathless and tired of their patients and themselves being treated like numbers, more and more healthcare workers are stepping off the ship.
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In an interview on the program “À vos affaires” with Pierre-Olivier Zappa, four professionals in the field spoke about the realities of their environment and the problems they encounter day after day.
Here is an overview of what is wrong with the Quebec health system, from the point of view of health workers.
Too many overtime
Yves Fortin, a beneficiary attendant in Lanaudière, claims to have worked more than 1,000 hours of overtime last year.
“It is not normal that”, he launches, adding that “it was badly supervised, badly managed”.
Fortunately, for him, the circumstances are favorable since his children are grown up and his spouse also works in the health network.
“But I am aware that someone who has a family, it is unthinkable, inconceivable, to be able to work so many hours and be so able to work”, believes Yves Fortin.
He also denounces the lack of personnel and the fact that he found himself alone this week in his department.
“I work in the critical care department, and it’s inconceivable. We cannot afford to be alone in such an important department with cases of COVID, ”he laments.
No ratio
One of the problems encountered by respiratory therapists, who are in high demand during COVID-19, is the lack of a patient-respiratory therapist ratio, according to respiratory therapist Emmy-Sarah Martel.
“An intensive care nurse cannot have more than two patients in her charge because of the cumbersome care, while I can have up to 15 intubated / ventilated and more in my charge”, laments. she.
If a patient’s condition worsens, then she is no longer available to care for critically ill patients in intensive care.
Emmy-Sarah Martel believes that setting up a patient-respiratory therapist ratio would “secure patient care” and humanize them.
“Because sometimes I can’t take the time I want for my patient because I have so many more to see and I have emergencies through it all. It’s really a problem with our work overload at the moment, ”says the one who is on her third 12-hour shift this week and has two more 16-hour shifts scheduled.
Lack of succession
For Julie Paquin, an auxiliary nurse at the Joliette hospital, the problems of training the next generation raise fears of a shortage of manpower soon.
“It may be that there will be no more relief soon because everything we hear in the media, it does not make young people want to come and work with us and yet we need it”, she fears.
Julie Paquin mentions that when she has to give training, her daily care tasks are not reduced.
“It means that the next generation ends up just working on the floor and helping us put out fires,” she criticizes.
“So they learn on the job. We can learn to build something on the job, but here we have humans in our hands, so this part of their training is important, ”adds the nursing assistant.
Despite the difficulties she encounters, Julie Paquin chooses to remain in her post for her patients.
“It’s really the customers and the patients who keep us in place, because the network, at the moment, is completely laughing at us. We are numbers for them and it is clear that even patients are treated like numbers and that, I find that very boring, ”she denounces.
Closed doors
Emy Coutu, a nurse practitioner, decided to leave the public health system for the private sector.
“I have noticed for several years that unfortunately the public health system has closed its doors to many resources,” she says.
She speaks in particular of nurses who work in private placement agencies, who must in particular give availability every week to be able to continue working in the public network.
Something that is difficult with the working hours of the private sector.
A structure to review?
For many healthcare workers, the entire current healthcare system must be reviewed for it to work and to humanize the care offered to patients.
“Sometimes there are patients that I don’t have time to see all day because I have other emergencies because we are not sufficiently staffed and there is too much overload. job. So we really have to review the structure to ensure human care for all ”, believes in particular the respiratory therapist Emmy-Sarah Martel.
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