Statistics Canada's survey on the work and health of nurses supports the need for government action to resolve staffing levels and workplace conditions for Ontario's registered nurses, says the president of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA).
"We have been sounding the alarm for years about the need to be
proactive in heading off a nursing shortage, about improving
working conditions for nurses, and about the risk to patient
care when too few nurses are working too many hours of overtime
with too few resources," says Linda Haslam-Stroud.
The National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses found
nurses regularly work overtime, and many have more than one
job. The study indicates that psychosocial and interpersonal
factors (including work stress, low autonomy and lack of
respect) are more strongly associated with health problems
among Canada's 314,900 nurses.
Ninety-five percent of nurses in Canada are women.
The proportion of nurses who reported a high level of work
stress (as determined by the level of job strain, physical
demands, and support from co-workers and supervisors) was
higher than that for employed people overall. Job strain
results when the psychological demands of a job exceed the
worker's discretion in deciding how to do it.
Nearly one-third (31 percent) of female nurses were classified
as having high job strain. The figure for all employed women
was 26 percent.
Job strain was strongly related to fair or poor physical and
mental health, and to lengthy or frequent absences from work
for health-related reasons. For example, 17 percent of nurses
who perceived high job strain reported 20 or more sick days in
the past year, compared with 12 percent of nurses who perceived
less job strain.
The survey found that many nurses worked overtime, and only
about six in 10 had full-time jobs in 2005.
Nearly half (46 percent) of nurses reported that their employer
expected them to work overtime, and three in 10 regularly
worked paid overtime, for an average of five hours per week.
One-half regularly work unpaid overtime, averaging four hours
per week.
Overall, however, nine out of 10 nurses reported that they had
good working relations and collaborated well with doctors. And
over one-half of nurses said that they were able to spend time
with their patients, thanks to adequate support services.
The Ontario nursing union represents 52,500 front-line
registered nurses and allied health professionals working in
Ontario hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health,
the community and industry. It has been vocal about the effects
of the nursing shortage on its members.
"The Statistics Canada survey proves what ONA has been saying
for so long now," says Haslam-Stroud. "Nurses are burning out
due to the heavy workloads and long hours. Yet they also have a
difficult time finding a full-time job.
They are more likely to experience violence on the job than all
other professions, and in Ontario, up to one-third of
practising RNs are eligible to leave the system beginning next
year.
"We trust the results of this survey will prompt employers to
take action to improve working conditions for their nurses,"
says Haslam-Stroud. "RNs from the hospital sector, 48,000 of
them in Ontario, are currently without a contract, and awaiting
a decision from an arbitrator. This follows the breakdown of
negotiations with the Ontario Hospital Association last summer
when its team announced that it was demanding the gutting of
nurses' sick-leave provisions."
(The full Statisics Canada report is available at
www.statcan.ca
. Type nurses work study in the search engine.)
-With files from CNW
