COVID-19: N.B. nurses ‘struggling’ with physical and mental exhaustion, union says – GLOBAL

April 28, 2022

In New Brunswick, the staffing issues facing hospitals existed before COVID-19.

However, as the global pandemic continues, those representing workers in all sectors of health care said more cracks in the foundation of the province’s health-care system are showing.

Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said nurses are physically and mentally exhausted.

“Everybody is struggling right now,” she said in an interview Thursday.

Recently, the province’s English health authority, Horizon Health Network, put a call out on social media encouraging any registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to take shifts, if they could.

Doucet said that speaks to a sense of desperation but also a way to show the public just how much the health-care system is struggling to maintain the basics.

Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/8794484/n-b-health-care-staffing-shortage-worse-unions/