88% of Nanaimo nurses say they wouldn't want family member to be a patient in their unit

Island Health internal survey shows safe patient care at risk

The BC Nurse's Union has obtained an internal survey of nurses at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, conducted by Island Health. The report provides strong evidence that a new care model which replaces nurses with care aides, or CDMR - is not only failing, but puts safe patient care at risk.

The survey (October 2013) shows that Nanaimo nurses were deeply concerned by its potential impacts on patient safety and quality of care. Asked by Island Health whether they 'have enough time to complete patient care tasks safely' 86 percent of respondents disagreed, 63 percent strongly. Asked if they 'would feel comfortable having one of my family members cared for in my unit' 88 percent disagreed, 64 percent strongly.

Island Health has claimed that having care aides deliver bathing and toileting services to patients was allowing nurses to focus more on their specialized training. Yet when nurses were asked whether 'baseline staffing is adequate to address the average or typical workload on my unit' 90 percent disagreed, 71 percent strongly.

"Island Health claimed that nurses were to be better supported and have more time to assess and get to know their patients," said BCNU President McPherson. "Yet when asked whether 'the right type of care is provided to patients at the right time by the most appropriate health care provider', 83 percent disagreed, 37 percent strongly."

"These indications of things going wrong at the outset were strong enough that the experiment should just have been shut down," she said. "Yet Island Health disregarded them and persisted with the same staffing mix despite clear signs that it wasn't capable of delivering an appropriate standard of patient care."

"We told Island Health that nurses with double the patient responsibility wouldn't be able to complete their assessments and charting in a timely manner," said BCNU Pacific Rim regional Chair Jo Salken. "Their own survey has confirmed that's exactly what was happening, yet nothing has changed and CDMR is now moving to Victoria."