long-term care facility who recently worked 10 12-hour shifts in 13 days.That span only involves picking a few additional shifts, but it weighs on her after working through the pandemic for so long, especially in a rural area.“Quite often we were so short that we didn’t have a second nurse, so I had no (licensed practical nurse),” she said,“So I was the only (nurse) for 30 people.”She said the lack of staffing is especially bad because she works in a rural area — Cut Knife, Sask., a town of about 600 people roughly 50 km east of North Battleford.The entire medical staff at the facility consists of about seven people.That means one or two people from that team needing to isolate with COVID-19 puts everyone back in the overtime situation.Speaking to Global News a few days after the stretch of shifts, Sawatzky said she is feeling better.But she said she noticed an effect it had on her.
COVID-19: 1,196 new cases in Saskatchewan, 20 deaths “I do know that my stamina and my energy levels are not much up to par.
It did physically drain me to spend that much time there. And I love my job,” she said.She’s only worked at the care facility full-time for a few months, having worked in the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford for 20 years.Perhaps that contributes to her view when she said the pandemic seemed inescapable, from many people believing it is comparable to the cold and flu — which she said felt like gaslighting to hear — to having her immunocompromised husband catch it.He has recovered fully, but each event adds to the strain.And the strain has been considerable.