Problems in Alberta’s health care are more and more frequently traced back to the serious nursing shortage.
ER doctors are concerned about patients kept in the hallway for hours, even days. Everything gets backed up and delayed; patients wait hours. The bed shortage, which keeps their patients from actually being admitted, isn’t really a bed shortage. There are empty beds, even whole units empty, but no nurses available to staff them.
Waiting lists for surgery grow longer. Surgeons wait idle, saying they can’t perform as many operations as they would like, because of the shortage of nurses.
Nurses are faced with “overcapacity” patient stacking. Three beds are crammed in a room. Nurses have to manoeuvre beds to get anything done.
Nurses are called and asked to work extra shifts twice, three times or even six times a day.
Residents in long-term care facilities get less and less nursing care. Even the Auditor General reported medications were being inadequately monitored.
People who need homecare have to wait longer and nurses have less and less time to spend with each family.
Health regions report mushrooming deficits totalling well in excess of $100 million, caused in part by the huge overtime costs that come from calling nurses in on so many extra shifts.
Patients and families come into the health system agitated and ready to fight.
Some observers have noted that the drastic health budget cuts in the early 1990s hurt Alberta’s health care badly. But the failure to train and plan for the health care workforce needs of this century are hurting care even more.
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