Saskatchewan nurses disappointed, tired amid province’s fifth wave of COVID-19

By Ian Gustafson, paNOW

Amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in the province, Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president Tracy Zambory told paNOW that nurses — particularly after Wednesday’s COVID briefing with Premier Scott Moe and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab — are feeling disappointed, unheard and unsupported.

“They’re really feeling like this kind of stress and tension is not sustainable,” she said, adding she has spoken to registered nurses all over the province.

During Wednesday’s media conference, Moe announced the current public health measures have been extended to Feb. 28 and that no additional restrictions will be implemented at this time.

Zambory explained this fifth wave will be a “disaster” and there is no room for the potential record hospitalizations the province will see.

“We’re hearing now from our members that we are at capacity,” she said. “They’re hanging bed sheets up in emergency rooms when they’re trying to do triage, there’s so many people there.”

There are other illnesses coming into hospitals besides COVID-19 cases, Zambory said, adding those people need to go somewhere.

“What Premier Moe is doing here is taking an absolute gamble,” she said. “He’s gambling with the system, he’s gambling with people’s lives, he’s gambling with the fact we have a health human resource crisis on our hands that they should be well aware of.”

She said SUN has studies that are saying health-care workers’ mental health is also in a crisis, explaining there has not been any letup for those who show up every day to work since the beginning of the pandemic.

“The conversation that was had (Wednesday), Premier Moe said something to the effect of ‘Just accept it and be prepared.’ Well, we can’t be prepared when there is no room. There’s no capacity in the system,” Zambory said.

“We hear every day of rural facilities that have no staff that have had to go on bypass. That means that those people travel into the larger centres like Prince Albert, like Regina and like Saskatoon.”

According to the latest data on the government’s dashboard, as of Wednesday, there were 121 people in hospital with COVID-19 and nine in intensive care units. Of the 121 in hospital, 112 were inpatient and of those, 57 were a COVID-related illness, 45 were incidental, asymptomatic infections and 10 had not yet been determined.

With the pandemic in general, Carolyn Strom, a registered nurse in Prince Albert, told paNOW nurses are tired and see firsthand when people are sick, and how the virus affects them.

“As health-care workers, we try and help. And right now, it’s just too much that I almost feel like we can’t. We’re not able to help everyone and people are pretty much on their own, which is really scary and sad,” Strom said.

She explained she has been doing extra work in her off time, taking calls and messages from people who know she’s a nurse to help them make sense of the guidelines because they’re confused. She is also tired and worried for her own family as she has children in school, which she said is not one of the safest places to be.

In terms of Wednesday’s COVID briefing, Strom said she does not agree with the Moe’s decision to not implement further restrictions.

“I took issue with him saying people just need to trust themselves at the end of the press conference. And it was just like, ‘What? You mean don’t take advice of health-care or public health officials?’ ” Strom said. “That’s what it sounded like and that will not go over well.

“It won’t help people not get sick. It’s everyone for themselves right now and it’s going to be rough the next few months.”