The BC Nurses Union says nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Sechelt are being stressed to the limit by increased nurse-patient ratios and recent overcrowding issues.
The BCNU says Vancouver Coastal Health’s recent move to something like the controversial Care Delivery Model Redesign at Nanaimo Regional General… means more care aides and fewer nurses.
Kath-Ann Terrett is BCNU’s chair for the Coastal Mountain Region. She says with a recent influx of cases nurses are now responsible for as many 9 or more patients, when the ideal ratio is 1 to 5.
Terrett says there are also now two patients in some of the rooms designed as single occupancy, which is compounding the problems for the nurses. She also says other aspects of the hospital design, like longer distances between rooms, are also making it harder to cope with an extra patient load and get help easily when you need it.
