Nurses éreintées by the extra time

Photo Courtesy
These nurses Joliette complain about the mandatory overtime, which forces them to stay for eight more hours at the hospital after their shift regular work.

Hugo Duchaine

Wednesday, 31 January 2018 22:19

UPDATE
Wednesday, 31 January 2018 22:19

Look at this article

Exhausted, the nurses in the Lanaudière denounce have done 87 000 hours of overtime last year, to the point where some of them were afraid to drive back after the work shifts of 16 hours.

“It is a vicious circle, because [the nurses] then fall in sick leave […]. It is a very poor management of the workforce, ” says Stéphane Cormier, president of the local union of the Federation interprofessional of the health (FIQ).

For the past five months, he said, what are at least three or four nurses who need to do mandatory overtime (TSO) after each quarter of work. An unbearable situation, which poisons the work atmosphere, according to him.

He claims that part-time positions become full-time positions, as hospitals will hire staff and that nurses can work shifts of 12 hours, to relieve the current crisis.

Cry from the heart

That is, he says, that it responded to the prime minister Philippe Couillard. The latter was requested on Wednesday to the union to propose ” other ways to reduce the burden of work “, responding to the many sit-ins, and at the cry of the heart, viral of a nurse to the eastern Townships on Facebook. Nurse for four years, Jodie Sawyer saw its worst winter in hôpital Pierre-Le Gardeur in Terrebonne.

“I’m afraid to take my car after 16 hours of work,” she says.

She has recently made two TSO in 14 days, where she had to work until the next day after his evening shift and still go to work the next day a 15-h.

Less effective

“I’m more tired, more irritable and less efficient,” she says. The nurse adds that colleagues give now two lunches, because they do not know when they will be able to leave the hospital.

Her colleague Mélanie Nadon has left the hospital after four hours of OSI, because she has three children at home.

“My spouse does not have to miss work because I am forced to stay in the hospital,” says-t it.

The spokesperson for the CISSS de Lanaudière, Pascale Lamy, responded by email that the TSO is a “last resort”, and that 400 candidates will be met in the near future to fill open positions in nursing.

For his part, the president of the FIQ, Nancy Bédard, said that if the nurses expressed themselves as much these days, is that they have ” hit a wall “. It is hoped that the managers of hospitals will ask for money to the government, since Philippe Couillard said Wednesday that ” the budget is here.”

The FIQ considers that 1600 nurses are without a job.