MARTIN: Protecting long-term care workers a priority
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Eight hundred and forty-seven. That’s the number of health-care workers from Ontario’s long term-care (LTC) system who had tested positive for COVID-19 as of April 20.
That means over 70% of infected health-care workers across the province are from LTC — a shocking number that highlights that we’re not only failing long-term care residents, but those caring for them.
For years, Ontario’s long-term care system has been rife with problems stemming from chronic under-funding, staffing shortages and overwhelming workloads for the staff in homes.
Nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) in this sector are often paid less than their counterparts in hospitals and many are forced to hold multiple part-time jobs just to make ends meet because of the limited availability of full-time, well-paying positions. Yet every day, they get up, go to work and care for our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends.
It’s no secret that there are deep cracks in the foundation of our LTC system. Many of them were exposed during the 2018 Public Inquiry and now, under the pressure of this pandemic, we’re seeing those cracks break wide open with disastrous consequences.
The numbers say it all. Thousands of residents and hundreds of staff infected. Hundreds of lives lost. The tragic scenes we’re seeing in these homes has brought long overdue attention to the sector, yet this is merely a symptom of a larger and long-standing issue. What has become glaringly apparent is that as a society, we not only undervalue the lives of those residents, but also the staff who care for them. This has to change.
If we were seeing these infection rates among hospital staff, we would expect nothing short of outrage. Why can’t we expect the same for our colleagues in LTC?
Despite the growing public and political attention to this vulnerable sector, we continue to hear horror stories from nurses. Stories about the lack of appropriate personal protective equipment, being forced to reuse one surgical mask per shift or over the course of several days, and nurses being bullied by management or being put on leave for speaking up.
Stories from some nurses who have contracted COVID-19 being told they’re at fault for getting sick and that it had nothing to do with the lack of protection they received from their employers. We’ve even seen nurses take their plea to court just to gain access to the equipment they need to protect themselves and ultimately, to save lives.
Unless staff have access to proper protection, we will continue to put residents at increased risk of contracting this deadly virus.
Last week we saw the government ramp up measures to protect LTC residents. This week, the Army is being parachuted in to help. This is a welcome effort for certain. In this time of crisis, we will take all the additional support we can.
Yet, it remains abundantly clear that we’re not going to be able to change the course of this crisis and provide meaningful protection for residents unless we make it a priority to protect the staff who care for them first.
When the troops arrive, I expect they will be donning appropriate protective equipment — as they should be. This will keep them safe and healthy in the course of their duty. Our nurses and PSWs have also been carrying out their duty. They are committed to the care of their residents day in and day out. They shouldn’t be asked, much less expected, to settle for anything less.
We’ve already lost one selfless and dedicated health-care worker to this pandemic. If we don’t adjust our priorities, if we don’t start treating our long-term care workers with the value and respect they deserve, I fear we risk losing many more in the days and months ahead.
— Dianne Martin, RPN, is the CEO of the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (WeRPN).
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