Ex Manitoba nurse exposes health-care problems

A former Manitoba nurse is using social media to shed light on what she describes as growing cracks in the province’s health-care system, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers and sparking important conversations in the process.

Katrina Koop spent more than a decade working across Manitoba’s health-care system, from hospital units and private nursing to agency, infusion clinics and flight nursing.

She said that breadth of experience, combined with mounting burnout, ultimately pushed her to step away from bedside care and speak publicly about what she believes the public is not being told.

“I just wanted to make the world a better place,” Katrina said of her decision to enter nursing in 2008. “But no matter where I worked, the common denominator was that people were exhausted, scared, and burning out, and nothing was really changing.”

Katrina said the tipping point came in November, when she found herself awake in the middle of the night debating whether to renew her nursing licence. Instead, she recorded a video explaining how she said the health-care system operates behind the scenes and why staffing shortages are more serious than headline numbers suggest.

Within 48 hours, the video had surpassed 100,000 views.

“People are angry because they don’t understand what’s happening,” she said. “They only hear what’s said publicly. They don’t see what’s happening behind closed doors, and nurses aren’t allowed to talk about it.”

After the video gained traction, Katrina said she felt she needed to choose between continuing her nursing career and speaking openly. She chose to not renew her licence, and resign from her nursing position.

“It became clear to me it was either my voice or my career,” she said.

“So I chose my voice.”

Among the issues Katrina frequently discusses online are staffing shortages, violence in the workplace, emergency department closures and changes to the use of agency nurses in Manitoba. She said reducing the number of approved nursing agencies could worsen shortages in rural and northern hospitals.

She also argues that agency nurses, often criticized as expensive, can in some cases cost less than full-time staff once overtime, benefits, pension, sick time and vacancy rates are factored in.

“These decisions have real consequences,” Katrina said. “Longer waits, worse outcomes and nurses being blamed for a system that’s stretched beyond its limits.”

Now outside the system, Katrina said nurses from across the province regularly contact her with concerns and internal information they are afraid to share publicly. She said she verifies what she can, protects sources, and translates complex system issues into plain language for the public.

“We’ve been conditioned to not speak, not even about our own personal experiences,” she said, recounting an incident where she said she was cautioned for commenting publicly on life in a community evacuated during wildfire season.

Katrina said she’s not trying to “stir up drama,” but rather redirect public frustration away from frontline workers and toward policymakers.

“Be mad, just be mad at the right people,” she said.

While much of Katrina’s content focuses on system failures, she said her goal is solutions, not complaints. She wants the public to know that better use of existing resources, improved retention, trauma-informed supports for nurses and clearer public education could improve care without significant new spending.

“Understanding has to come before solutions. In health care, we assess before we intervene. You don’t walk into a patient’s room and start treating without first understanding what’s actually going on,” she explains. “The same applies to systems. If people don’t understand how health care is structured, funded, staffed, and governed, then any “solution” offered is either unrealistic, superficial, or impossible to implement.”

Katrina is also in the early stages of launching a grassroots initiative called Care and Connect Manitoba, which she said would focus on helping residents navigate the health-care system, reduce isolation and build community-based supports throughout all of Manitoba.

“There are people falling through the cracks simply because they don’t know what to ask for or where to go,” she said. “Your quality of care shouldn’t depend on your level of education or who you know.”

She cites personal examples of informally helping families advocate for appropriate care, work she said should exist as a formal, accessible service.

Katrina’s following, which pre-dated her health-care advocacy, has grown rapidly as her focus shifted to system issues that affect everyday Manitobans.

Despite the emotional toll of revisiting difficult experiences, including workplace violence, preventable deaths and the loss of colleagues to suicide, Katrina said the work energizes rather than burdens her.

“It’s heavy because it is heavy,” she said. “But it also feels like momentum. People feel heard. And when people feel heard, things can change.”

For Katrina, that change starts with an honest conversation.

“We can’t fix what we refuse to acknowledge,” she said. “And silence hasn’t helped anyone.”

» Winnipeg Sun