Many nurses are tired and burned out as a result. This is despite a steady increase in care demand over the past two year due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Linda McGillis Hall, a professorThe Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, a well-respected international researcher with expertise in nursing work environments, states that the current situation facing nurses is not only a challenge but a crisis that must be addressed.
McGillis hall says that nurses have been faced with surges of patient care before. This was the case with SARS 2003 and hallway medicine in 2019. This is because those surge periods ended there was a reprieve.
COVID-19 has been relentless and doesn’t provide any breaks. With each new wave of nurses, they face another set of care challenges, causing them to reach breaking point.
McGillis Hall received a grant from Canada’s Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), to gain direct feedback from nurses across the country on how to improve the environment in which they work. The study, which McGillis Hall is collaborating with a team of researchers from Canadian universities, aims to provide a snapshot of Canada’s current nursing workforce following the virus’ many waves. It also highlights ways to reduce burnout and improve retention.
McGillis Hall said that although we know from recent research how the pandemic affects nurses’ psycho-social health, there is no evidence to support the existence of evidence-based strategies to reduce these effects.
Burnout among nurses is a result of staff shortages, increased patient care needs, and heavier work assignments. It is becoming increasingly difficult for nurses to provide quality care for patients in an environment that only allows them to meet their basic needs.
McGillis Hall says that nurses choose to work with people because they care about the profession. [So]If you hear words such as the new normal, it may be worth further investigation.
Even before the pandemic began, all major health-care organizations around world, from the WHO and the International Council of Nurses, warned of a possible global shortage of nurses.
Sheri PriceProfessor at Dalhousie University and co-investigator in this study, Price focuses her doctoral research to support nursing retention and recruitment. Price hopes the study will help to improve the support for nurses and provide practice and policy recommendations after a two-year period of unprecedented upheaval in Canada’s healthcare system.
Price, who received herPhD in Nursing from the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. She says that nurses have a lot of insight into what support they need. Nurses will have a voice, and can tell us about the problems they face. They can also suggest creative solutions, because they are the ones doing the work.
Researchers say that now is the right time to conduct this study, as the continuing demands on health care are beginning to ease and the public’s interest in the health-care system’s capacity remains high. With the recent announcement from the federal government about a search to find a national chief of nursing officer, it is crucial to take the time necessary to plan for and make changes in the workforce before another surge.
This project is a beacon of hope for me, says Michelle LalondeAssociate Professor at the University of Ottawa. She is also a co-investigator in the study. The public should have a little hope that things will improve and that we will be in a position to make concrete, action-oriented recommendations for the nursing workforce.
Lalonde, a graduate of Bloomberg Nursings’ PhD program, has also studied new nursing graduates transitioning into the workforce as well as the perspectives and experiences of francophone nurses. This will be an integral part the pan-Canadian research.
Lalonde claims that nurses who joined the workforce in the midst of the pandemic have a wealth of knowledge about how to navigate the practice. Sanja VisekrunaAnother co-investigator, Dr. Yong, agrees that policy-makers must consider retention strategies when evaluating them.
As a nurse educator, I am always thinking about how I can support students entering the nursing workforce. Visekruna is an assistant professor at McMaster University, and a graduate of Bloomberg Nursings PhD program. Mentorship is still a key component in building the skills of nurses. This study will focus on new, evidence-based ways to support students who are entering the profession. It will also examine the role of nurses in different roles. This is crucial for the future and retention of the nursing workforce.
The largest group of health-care providers in the country, nurses are vital to society’s well-being. Researchers feel that more attention should be paid to their mental health and working conditions.
Price states that nurses have been in need of evidence-informed policies to support them for a long time.
