‘INSANE’: Staffing level at mental health centre burning nurses out

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Staffing in Manitoba’s largest mental health centre is so inadequate that nurses there are increasingly dealing with their own mental health challenges, a Manitoba nurse said.

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“It’s not fair to staff, it’s not fair to the patients, and it’s not fair to our families at home who lately get the worst versions of us, because frankly, it’s all we have left mentally,” read a post on the Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU) Facebook page written by a nurse who said they work at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

In 2020, MNU started posting on their Facebook page messages they received from nurses about the state of health care in the province, but without revealing the identity of those workers, as part of a social media campaign they refer to as “behind the mask.”

“This is nurses telling the truth about what’s really happening in health care,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said.

The message posted on Thursday claimed that at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre — a 252-bed mental health facility in the city located about 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg — the state of nurse staffing is dire.

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“Last week, a ward with almost 20 acute psychiatric patients had 2 nurses,” the post reads. “The amount of sick calls is through the roof, and we’re expected to just deal with it. Work short. Then, come in tomorrow and do it again.”

The nurse said the pressure on nurses at the facility can leave them burnt out.

“The sad reality is, every day now at Selkirk Mental Health Centre, you are mandated. People are constantly going in before their shift for reverse overtime — because if you don’t, you are mandated for the shift following your originally scheduled one,” the post reads.

“We are expected by management to do overtime. The pressure this puts on staff? What if you don’t have childcare? What if you have plans? One person can’t possibly do everything you need to in a day and provide proper patient care when everyone is burnt out.

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“It’s insane.”

On Friday, Jackson said that MNU is “very much aware” of ongoing nursing shortages at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, and said the same issues continue to persist at health care facilities across the province.

“MNU has been speaking out about the need to bolster the depth of workforce in nursing for years and in our last round of bargaining, the need to get more full-time nurses in place to stabilize the system was a priority,” Jackson said.

“Without an adequate pool from which to draw, the system cannot operate effectively.”

She added the union is concerned about all of the overtime that continues to be forced on nurses, and what it is doing for the overall morale in health care facilities, and doing to nurse’s mental health.

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“We need to make mental health a priority for all frontline workers,” Jackson said.

She also continues to ask the NDP government to release more information about what they have learned from their ongoing listening tours, which for months have seen provincial officials travel to health-care centres in urban and rural areas and speak to frontline health-care workers about the challenges they face.

“We have made in clear, we are eager to see the action steps taken from the insights gleaned on the tour,” Jackson said.

The NDP government didn’t respond to the Winnipeg Sun’s request for comment.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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