Manitoba nurses work unsustainable overtime hours, says nurses' union head

The Manitoba Nurses Union says the amount of overtime nurses are working cannot continue, but the province says the numbers are actually heading in the right direction.

Nurses at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre, which is Manitoba's largest health-care facility, worked 224,000 hours in overtime from September 2022 to the end of May 2023, say documents released on Wednesday by the NDP.

That's equivalent to 25½ years in overtime in just nine months, as the NDP said in a news release about the data, which it acquired through a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The NDP also said the province has spent nearly $20 million over the same period to shore up nursing shortfalls with staff from private agencies.

Darlene Jackson, president of the 12,000-member nurses' union, said the numbers are concerning but not unexpected, because the province continues to face a significant nursing shortage, with more than 2,800 vacancies.

"I'm hearing from nurses every day that they have been either mandated or are volunteering to work double shifts," she said.

"So these numbers don't surprise me, they concern me and they worry me … because there is only so long that we can sustain our health-care system [this way].

"You can't do that number of hours continuously. You burn out and then you're of no use to yourself, your family or your patient."

The NDP, in its news release, blamed the Progressive Conservative government for creating the situation with its health-care cuts, which it says included 300 nurses from Winnipeg alone since 2016.

Shared Health, the organization that oversees health-care delivery in Manitoba, responded with its own statement on Wednesday, saying the overtime crunch is improving. There were 26,762 overtime hours in May 2022, compared to 21,755 in May 2023.

"While this improvement is welcome, we are committed to ongoing efforts to reduce overtime in Manitoba's health-care system," said the statement emailed to CBC News.

There are a number of initiatives being implemented or already in progress, the Shared Health statement said. They include the establishment of a provincial float pool, the recruitment of internationally educated nurses and a number of monetary and non-monetary incentives.

Post-secondary institutions are also working to increase the number of nurse training spaces.

"While nurse staffing is a challenge all provinces are facing, it is expected these ongoing initiatives will reduce staff vacancy rates and reduce reliance on nursing overtime," the statement said.

Recruitment and building up the number of nurses is critical, but it's even more important to make sure they stay, Jackson said.

"We need to really look at retention. That's been my sounding board for a very long time. I feel like this government hasn't got their finger on the pulse when it comes to retention and that really worries me," she said.

"This is not a problem that's going to be solved overnight and it wasn't a problem that was caused overnight. It started eight years ago, with the cuts and the consolidation and the closures of emergency rooms and workload issues at that time, and it's just snowballed."

The key to recruitment is creating a better work-life balance for nurses, Jackson said.

"We are seeing nurses leaving the public system and going into the private agencies where they have [that]," she said.