File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Amandalina Letterio

ROYAL INLAND HOSPITAL

IH responds to RIH nurses, staffing outcry for support

Aug 26, 2021 | 5:08 PM

KAMLOOPS — Interior Health (IH) is responding to the recent outcry from Royal Inland Hospital Nurses who say they are leaving the job because they are understaffed and overworked.

“It is heartbreaking when you know how hard people are working and they feel that there aren’t enough supports there,” said Sue Gardner-Clark, Director in Clinical Operations at IH and a former UK military nurse.

She says this is the toughest she has ever seen it for nurses.

“We do recognize that we need to try and look at how to recruit for the future and support those people…We do have an amazing team here at Royal Inland and everyone’s dedicated to providing very safe, quality care and I think that’s why people are so concerned,” she told CFJC News.

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The turnover rate for Royal Inland Hospital nurses is at 24 per cent this year, compared to the previous year at 21 per cent. IH says this is standard.

“We actually have a targeted recruitment team being developed just for Royal Inland, just to try and help go at actually recruiting all different health professionals, not just across B.C. but across the provinces,” Gardner-Clark explained.

In an interview with CFJC News earlier this week, the B.C. Nurses Union (BCNU) said nurses at Royal Inland Hospital have told them they sometimes have to care for up to 10 patients at one time.

This has doubled from the normal ration of one nurse to five patients.

“Consider the impact that would have on patient safety, nurse safety, nurse mental health, the ethical and moral dilemmas that would go with that type of working environment,” said Scott Duvall, union rep at the BCNU.

RIH surgeon Dr. Scott Hughes operates with a team of nurses who express their exhaustion to him regularly.

“I think that’s the constant theme here. That ask and that demand is always to do more with less. Whether its less operating room space, or with less nurses and more patients — and that’s not an equation that works,” said the orthopaedic surgeon.

The hospital operates at over capacity and the new Patient Care Tower will increase patient volume.

“By next summer, when the tower opens, we will have those additional beds and we’re actively recruiting for those positions to support those new beds.”

As staff morale seems to be dwindling, Interior Health says it is making the effort to retain staff by welcoming suggestions via email or forums and town halls.

“(A starting point is) initially just engaging with their department leaders and speaking to them and they can advocate up the chain,” said Gardner-Clark.

Both Interior Health and hospital staff agree that the healthcare staffing hurdle comes down to funding from the provincial government.