KENORA – Hospital workers across Ontario are tired and stressed out – and they’re feeling little confidence that things will change for the better, a survey for CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) suggests.
Judy Bain, a nurse and Area 7 vice-president of the OCHU, said Friday she was “a little taken aback” by the survey results, including “the number of people that really felt demoralized and devastated.”
“It was a very, I guess, eye-opening poll for us,” she remarked.
Nurses and other hospital employees “are feeling stressed, they’re struggling with the work environment, they’re struggling with working conditions,” she said.
“I think people just don’t feel confident that the government really understands or has a handle on what’s happening,” she added.
The polling firm Nanos recently surveyed more than 750 hospital workers represented by OCHU, including nurses, personal support workers, housekeepers and clerical staff.
Most respondents said they are not confident in the province’s plan to improve the health-care system, and nearly half said they are considering quitting their jobs.
More than 60 per cent reported dealing with exhaustion and high stress levels, and 41 per cent said they have “dreaded” going to work.
OCHU secretary-treasurer Sharon Richer is quoted in a news release as saying the survey findings “are alarming to say the least.”
Bain said the stress of working in an understaffed environment “takes its toll on you because you’re not getting that time away from the workplace to rejuvenate. It also takes a toll on your family.”
Staff-to-patient ratio standards, more full-time work and more hospital funding are some of the pieces to solving the crisis, according to the union, which is in mediation with the province to reach a centralized collective bargaining agreement.
