MANITOBA 

"WHY WOULD I COME BACK?": Nurses aren't taking up gov't's plan to return to health care system

Story by Glen Dawkins • Winnipeg Sun

Health care workers© Provided by Winnipeg Sun

Last month, the provincial government announced a plan to encourage former nurses to return to Manitoba’s health care system. But according to the head of the Manitoba Nurses Union, the early reaction has been anything but positive.

That has also been reflected on the MNU’s social media, including one retired nurse posting: “WHY WHY as a retired 64 year old would I want to come back to an unsafe environment.”

“The reaction I got from nurses who reached out to me is exactly the same reaction as was in our comments section of that post is that this is not an incentive that would bring them back into the workplace,” said MNU President Darlene Jackson. “Retired nurses left for a reason and to be very clear the situation hasn’t gotten any better. What they’re basically saying is: Why would I come back?”

On Feb. 28, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced the province was working with three nursing regulatory colleges to create a streamlined path for former nurses to return to work. The interim changes would ensure former licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses who worked in Manitoba’s health-care system in the last five years and were in good standing with their regulatory college have a faster, more flexible pathway to return to their profession.

“Safety, mandating (overtime), workload. Nothing has been done through that announcement to address those issues and until those issues are addressed I don’t see us getting very much of an uptake on that announcement,” said Jackson, who spoke at the Feb. 28 press conference.


Darlene Jackson, President of Manitoba Nurses Union, at an event in Winnipeg regarding nursing on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.© Chris Procaylo

Jackson said the proposal would only work if a desirable work environment is created.

“It’s very difficult to entice people back to a situation where you’re working sometimes 16 hours without a break, where there’s violence in your workplace and people are afraid to go to work,” said Jackson. “They know that they’re going to experience violence in their job. Workloads are crushing and I just think that we need to address those issues. We need to start by retaining those that are in this system.

“Frankly this government must do whatever they can to retain those nurses because until we can provide a stable staffing the nursing shortage is just going to increase. We will stabilize staffing if we can retain the nurses that are here and once they’re retained and once we have the new grads come in and they are working in facilities and not feeling overwhelmed, we’ll bring more nurses in. But we have to stabilize staffing and the only way to do that is through retention.”

In a statement, Asagwara said that creating streamlined pathways for nurses to return is one element of the government’s work to staff up Manitoba’s health care system.


Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara at an event in Winnipeg regarding nursing on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.© Chris Procaylo

“We’ve taken several other important steps in addition to this but we know there is a lot of work ahead of us to change the culture of our province’s health care system,” they said. “We are committed to addressing issues of workplace violence and ensuring workloads are manageable. We have heard from many frontline health professionals during our listening tour who have offered solutions, some of which we’ve actioned, and we are going to continue that dialogue going forward as we fix Manitoba’s health care system that was decimated by the previous government.”

In last year’s provincial election, the NDP campaigned on improving the health care system.

“The NDP ran an election campaign almost entirely on health care, yet still have not brought forward a credible plan to retain, train, and attract more health care workers in Manitoba,” said MLA Kathleen Cook (Roblin), PC health critic. “Manitoba patients deserve answers from this NDP government.”

Jackson said the MNU will be monitoring the success of the changes in attracting more nurses.

“I am very interested in what the uptake is because I think it’s important to know exactly where nurses are right now and at this point I can clearly say that the nurses I’m hearing from have no intention of going back to the situation,” Jackson said.

gdawkins@postmedia.com

X: @SunGlenDawkins