An investigative study finds Ontario health care staff worked under psychological distress during the pandemic leaving many feeling "violated," says the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU/CUPE).
Since the pandemic was declared in March, 16 Ontario health care workers have died and 9,307 have contracted Covid-19 at work, according to government statistics.
At a news conference Friday in North Bay, OCHU/CUPE President Michael Hurley said solemnly, "The regulatory system has failed people."
According to a new peer-reviewed study, nurses, personal support workers (PSWs), custodians and other Ontario front-line health care workers felt they were being "sacrificed," by governments while they were working unprotected and facing psychological distress over fears of contracting COVID-19
Dr. James Brophy and Dr. Margaret Keith, academic researchers affiliated with the University of Windsor led the in-depth, investigative study on health care workers’ experiences in Ontario’s hospitals and long-term care homes.
The researchers compiled data from thousands of health care workers, before conducting individual interviews with 10 subjects across the health care fields. They say a common theme from the responses of the workers was they "know that they are at increased risk of infection due to lack of protection which resulted in anger, frustration and a sense of violation that may have long-lasting implications."
One interviewee, a long-term care nurse, said her workload keeps increasing.
"We have lost about 100 staff who have either taken a leave of absence because of fear or have taken a leave to go work at other jobs," she shared. "When I leave this interview, I'm heading into work for 44 of the next 60 hours."
She added she is feeling the effects of the added stress and misses "normal" activities.
"Now, when I'm not at work, I have to be alone all the time," she said. "I can't visit with friends or with my children. If I were to socialize, I would risk bringing the virus into work, to the vulnerable people that I look after."
A PSW in a long-term care facility told researchers she struggles with stress and workload.
"There's definitely extra stress and some days, you just break down and start crying," she said to the research team. "Our workload is crazy and the girls are just running on the floor to keep up."
Another interview subject relayed the story of a nursing co-worker who was set into a suspected positive Covid-19 patient's room without proper personal protection equipment. The patient was determined to be positive but the nurse was not considered to be "sufficiently exposed" to warrant self-isolation for 14 days. She was told she must continue to work her shifts. After several days, she developed symptoms, became ill, and tested positive.
Seeing her young colleague forced to work without proper PPE and then struggle through her medical issues "deeply affected her own emotional well-being. She's physically OK now, but mentally, I don't think she'll ever be the same. And, she's a young nurse starting out."
The study warns, "Given intrinsic links between working conditions and patient care, the ongoing stress and burnout among healthcare workers is a cause of concern for all Ontarians."
"We all need to pay attention to the pleas of health care workers during this frightening time. Not only does their well-being matter, we need to realize that if they are not kept safe and well, they can’t properly care for their patients and residents," Keith says.
The authors say that although front-line workers were applauded and termed "heroes," during the pandemic, the systemic flaws in the health care system leave them unsupported, vulnerable and sacrificed.
"Sacrificed: Ontario Healthcare Workers in the Time of COVID-19," is being released as COVID-19 second wave lockdowns begin in key areas of the province and the recent important admission by all levels of public health that the science shows that the Coronavirus can spread through aerosol droplet transmission, not just simple droplets as these agencies initially asserted in the pandemic’s first wave.
The research sheds light on how the systemic weaknesses in Ontario’s health system adversely impacted nurses, personal support workers (PSWs), cleaners and other front-line health care workers in COVID-19 wave one.
"The study's findings lead to important recommendations," in the health care system says co-author Hurley, including:
- raising staffing levels in hospitals and long term care;
- legislated protection to allow staff to speak out about conditions at work without reprisal;
- the urgent need to rebuild a regulatory system that has failed health care workers;
- providing access to the protective equipment staff require to be safe; and,
- greater support from management and access to mental health supports.
"The nurses, PSWs and custodians we did extensive interviews with felt they were being sacrificed by all levels of government that chose to water-down protections because of the lack of masks and other gear leaving them at greater risk of infection," says Brophy.
Referring to the significantly worse outcomes in for-profit long-term care homes during the pandemic as an indicator of the effects of privatization, the authors said the government must revamp priorities "away from the profit motive and toward the health and well-being of persons."
The research was done in collaboration with the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions-Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU-CUPE), based on extensive interviews with 10 health care workers. The study interviews were supplemented by an OCHU-CUPE poll involving 3,000 members about their concerns regarding personal protection.
Keith notes the predominantly female workforce in Ontario health care is disproportionately racialized and operates in a toxic environment with alarming levels of physical violence, sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
She adds, "Compounding the problem is a hierarchical workplace culture where management marginalizes workers’ voices and threatens them with reprisals for speaking up. The residue for many of these female health care workers is that they feel violated and subjected to much higher risks than they should have been."
