Emergency nurses in seven villages in Hudson’s Bay tonight expressed their refusal to work, specifically to protest the serious shortage of staff in this remote region of Quebec, where recruitment has always been a problem.
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“People are ready to step down en masse. We’ve been sounding the alarm for years. We’re facing an exodus of nurses, even now that people won’t be staying long in the North,” said Maxime Godin, representative of the Northern Union of Hudson’s Bay Nurses and Care Professionals.
As a result, in the evening, the fifteen nurses serving seven villages refused to answer the phone on duty to protest their working conditions and staff turnover. It was doctors, managers or nurses who had to replace them.
Due to the region’s labor shortage, some nurses sometimes find themselves working 24-hour shifts without sleeping, Mr Godin regrets. “It is difficult for them and dangerous for the population. And no one seems concerned about the situation,” he adds.
“Yesterday a colleague cried and was in psychological distress [à cause des conditions]. That is unacceptable,” emphasizes Maxime Godin.
In some villages, due to staff shortages, there are half as many nurses as normal, the representative said.