More nurses needed to deliver safer care

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is making health-care promises that the Manitoba Nurses Union says he can’t deliver.

In a post last week by the premier on the X social media website, he said “If you wouldn’t get on a plane with a pilot forced into back-to-back shifts, why should it be any different in an ER — and this spring, legislation is coming to end mandatory overtime for nurses. We’ve already hired 3,500 more health-care workers, including 1,200 more nurses, we can make this change — and deliver better health care for Manitobans.”

He followed that up with another tweet earlier this week, in which he said “If you want safer care, you need enough nurses on every shift. It’s that simple. And this spring, legislation is coming to set nurse-to-patient ratios in key areas of our health-care system.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union does not share the premier’s confidence. In a post on its Facebook account two days ago, the union recounted a recent conversation between Kinew and a nurse, in which the nurse said she had heard about the ending of mandatory overtime, but added “I want to know how you plan to do it when there are not enough nurses.”

Kinew is quoted as responding that “We have enough nurses,” but the nurse then responded that “There are not enough nurses. We are just going to end up being guilted into staying overtime or working short. Period.”

The premier then said that his government has added 1,200 nurses, insisting there are enough nurses, but the nurse replied “There isn’t. Look at your vacancy rates.”

Kinew then told the nurse, “You shouldn’t listen to your union. Darlene is steering you wrong,” but the nurse responded “I am not listening to Darlene. I work in a hospital. I see it every day.” The premier then walked away.

That same nurse is quoted in the MNU Facebook post, saying “I felt gaslit. Heartbroken. I voted for this man. I believed in him. How is he telling me the staffing issues we face every day aren’t real?”

In that same post, the MNU argues that “Ending mandatory overtime is not possible without addressing staffing shortages honestly and transparently.” It says that dismissing the voices of those doing the work does not resolve the crisis, but rather deepens it.

We agree. As we pointed out just last month, there is compelling evidence that our health-care system continues to lack sufficient numbers of nurses and other health-care professionals to ensure the ending of mandatory overtime will not jeopardize patient safety.

We pointed out that the Prairie Mountain Regional Health Authority had hundreds of vacancies throughout its staffing structure, and was struggling to manage a 30 per cent vacancy rate for nurses. And we added that according to the MNU, there were 650 vacant nursing positions in Prairie Mountain Health, with registered nurses accounting for 273 of those positions.

None of that has changed significantly over the past month, when MNU president Darlene Jackson — the “Darlene” referred to by the premier in the above conversation — told us that nurses have no choice but to work extended hours, beyond their 12-hour shifts, because there’s not enough staff to handle everything.

Kinew may wish that was not the case, and he may resent Jackson for being truthful about the ongoing nurse shortage, but the numbers speak for themselves.

More clearly, he cannot credibly assert there are enough nurses in the province’s health-care system to allow for the ending of mandatory overtime if Jackson and her MNU members — who are on the front lines of health care, after all — continue to insist there still aren’t enough nurses to allow for that step to be taken without putting patients’ safety at risk.

We understand the premier’s eagerness to solve the nursing shortage and end mandatory overtime but, if he won’t listen to Jackson, he should listen to himself.

His post on X says that “If you want safer care, you need enough nurses on every shift.” Before his government ends mandatory overtime, he must be sure that is in fact the case.