Short-Staffing is Jeopardizing Patient Care
Nov 15, 2013
health care support services, long-term care, mgeu, michelle gawronsky, personal care homes
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a rally at the Manitoba Legislature to bring attention to the issue of short-staffing in our health care facilities and personal care homes.
As President of the MGEU, I often speak at events like this, and I love every opportunity I get to talk about what MGEU members do and shine a light on the challenges they face.
But this topic is a little different for me. You see, I was a health care aide for 36 years, so I know from experience that when someone calls in sick, or is on vacation, there isn’t additional help to call on.
What happens most of the time is those who are on the floor that day are expected to take up the slack, even though they already have a full workload. We call this “working short” and I’ve done it more times than I care to mention. And the experience of that was one of the reasons that I got involved in the labour movement all those years ago. I realized that my employer didn’t always make the right decisions, not just for me or for my co-workers, but, most importantly, for the vulnerable people I cared for every day.
The union gave me a chance to make a difference, to be able to speak up and have a voice when there is a problem in the workplace. And to help find a solution that was in everyone’s best interests.
We’re all working harder these days with less; less support, less funding, less staff. The issue of short-staffing is getting increasingly worse and we’re starting to see the effects. It’s time to speak up about the reality in our health care facilities and how it’s hurting Manitobans.
The level of patient care cannot remain the same if the number of patients or residents an employee works with suddenly doubles. When there are not enough staff on the floor, real people suffer. It’s a sad but simple truth.
This is the message that we have to get through to the government. Our patients ought to be cared for with the dignity that we all deserve. The issue of working short needs to be addressed once and for all.
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It is a fact that in the past say 30 years Canadian are living longer. In some cases this means that individuals are becoming sicker and more disabled. The disabilities are more pronounced when individuals are moved into Personal Care Facilities and the demands on staff are increased without additional staff being brought in. A Personal Care Worker moves from Resident to Resident giving the required care to each individual without the time to offer any support to the individual or meet individual needs that may come up. The facilities are being run like factories with the assembly ling going faster and faster and requests for more help fall on deaf ears. In every meaningful way Personal Care Homes are becoming the Sweat Shops of modern times. Things need to change to put "Caring" back into the vocabulary of Care Homes.
Ken H. - 2013-11-17 12:38