Nurses in Canada say working during the COVID-19 Omicron wave has left them burnt out, physically and mentally, and an increase in abuse directed at health-care workers has pushed them to breaking point.
According to a report from the Ontario Science Table, pre-pandemic, 20 to 40 per cent of health-care workers reported severe burnout.
By spring 2021, rates had climbed to more than 60 per cent. We asked one Toronto nurse to tell us what a typical shift looks like. Leah Rosevar has been a nurse for 10 years and now works in triage in the emergency department at a downtown Toronto hospital. This is the story of a Thursday night shift in January, as told to Ashleigh Stewart. I am tired and groggy when I pull into the hospital parking lot.
It’s already dark. The hospital looms in front of me; a hulking, grey mass. Just the sight of it makes me feel nervous, stressed and apprehensive.