Burnout reaches new levels for Sask. health-care workers: psychiatrist
As the province moves to ease pressure on hospitals through patient transfers and federal help, healthcare workers say they're experiencing a new level of burnout.
Tamara Hinz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, says moral distress has evolved over the last two years.
"For the first several months a lot of us were running on fear and adrenaline and those gas tanks are empty now,” Hinz said.
According to Hinz, those empty tanks are leading to chronic stress and constant fatigue for healthcare workers. She says rationing care and planning for life or death decisions is taking its toll on many staff.
While medical professionals are trained to deal with bad outcomes, Hinz says nothing prepared them for this.
"The magnitude and the frequency and the severity of all of those bad outcomes has really just been ratcheted up"
As of Friday morning, 117 people were in Saskatchewan ICUs.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) says an overwhelmed critical care system is leading to burnout across the country.
"It is much worse in provinces like Saskatchewan where healthcare providers feel gas-lighted, lied to by government and not as if their concerns are being taken seriously,” said CMA president Dr. Katharine Smart.
In the summer, physicians penned a letter to government calling for greater restrictions.
In mid-September, the province reintroduced the mask mandate while announcing proof of vaccination requirements. Premier Scott Moe has since said the government should have brought those measures in two weeks sooner.
"I worry about how people are going to get through this time and who's going to leave,” said NDP leader Ryan Meili.
“We can't spare any of these doctors or any of these nurses, and yet people are going to be so burnt out they're not going to want to continue to practice."
The Saskatchewan Health Authority and Saskatchewan Medical Association are offering resources for workers, including a peer support program.
Hinz says it's encouraging to see supports, but it shouldn't have come to this.
“That moral distress and that burnout would certainly be a lot easier to prevent in the first place than trying to treat it,” she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Full parole granted to man convicted in notorious 'McDonald's murders' in Cape Breton
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
George Washington family secrets revealed by DNA from unmarked 19th century graves
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
'We won't forget': How some Muslims view Poilievre's stance on Israel-Hamas war
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Why some Christians are angry about Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bible
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.