More than half of Sask. nurses surveyed are considering leaving the profession: union poll

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) found many of its members are working short-staffed and are considering leaving the profession, in its annual survey.

The survey of membership was conducted online in February and March of 2022.

In the results, 54.7 per cent said they have considered stepping away from registered nursing in the past 12 months.

More than four-in-five, 82.8 per cent, of survey takers reported permanent or temporary vacancies for registered nurses in their workplace, which SUN said is more than double the 39.7 per cent who indicated the same in 2021.

Additionally, 89.2 per cent said there is currently a shortage of registered nurses available to cover absences or to meet higher service demands.

“While the provincial budget begins to table future staffing needs in Saskatchewan healthcare, it does very little to address the crisis we’re in right now,” said Tracy Zambory, SUN president, in a press release.

“Without immediate relief, more registered nurses are going to leave the profession. It feels like we’re trying to dig ourselves out of a hole without a shovel.”

The survey results also show the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on registered nurses.

Over half of those who took part attested to a greater concern with safety (72.8 per cent), feelings of anxiety and helplessness (72.5 per cent), feelings of frustration or anger (77 per cent) and feelings of uncertainty and lack of confidence in leadership (76.2 per cent).

Overall, registered nurses gave negative ratings to all levels of governance when asked about pandemic response.

The worst ratings were given to elected Saskatchewan government officials, with the premier and minister of health receiving a negative performance rating from 68 per cent of respondents.

The NDP said the minister has been minimizing the concerns of those on the front lines.

On Tuesday, health minister Paul Merriman recognized the challenges and thanked nurses all across the healthcare system.

He said the role of the government is to support healthcare workers.

“You’ve seen the number in the budget that we’re allocating for recruitment and retention, we’re setting up the new agency to be able to help with that, new nursing seats, so we’re trying on all fronts,” said Merriman.

The opposition said recruitment is a long-term solution that doesn’t address the urgency of the issue.

“[Merriman’s] talking about plans that will bring more nurses into Saskatchewan years down the road, but we need to work hard to keep the ones that we’ve got here right now,” said Ryan Meili, leader of the NDP.

Both the NDP and SUN said healthcare members need to be included in the government’s decision process when it comes to healthcare in order to see change.

“We are the largest group of care providers in this province, you cannot run a healthcare system without registered nurses,” said Zambory.

The questionnaire was sent to all SUN members and 1,530 chose to take part yielding a general margin of error plus-or-minus 2.3 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

SUN represents more than 10,000 Registered Nurses (RNs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs) and graduates across Saskatchewan.