Each encounter that health-care students have with patients and families helps them understand real-world patient needs. That means all Canadians have a role in educating future health-care providers.
Health workers who picked their noses were more likely to contract COVID, according to a new study. But here’s what the study means for the rest of us.
Nurses of the University College Hospital protest in London on Feb. 6, 2023. The walkout is part of a wave of health worker strikes and demonstrations in recent months.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
U.K. health worker protests echo issues in Canada. They are also a harbinger of future labour disputes and systemic collapse if austerity, underinvestment and neglect of health workers continue.
Canada has a shortage of doctors. That’s why making it difficult for internationally trained doctors to practise here is so mystifying.
(Francisco Venancio, Unsplash)
Canada is sidelining qualified doctors while many Canadians struggle to find health care. Here’s what we can and must do better for internationally trained physicians.
Building safer workplaces requires leaders who understand how years of resource constraints, unhealthy work environments, abuse from patients and a pandemic have contributed to overwhelming burnout and job dissatisfaction among workers.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The future of our health system depends on recruiting and retaining passionate and highly skilled health-care workers. It’s essential to build work environments where they feel supported and safe.
Patient safety incidents are the third leading cause of death in Canada.
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Patient safety incidents were already a leading cause of death in Canada. With that crisis converging with the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care is being pushed to a breaking point.
Common approaches used to encourage internationally educated health-care professionals to work in smaller communities often focus primarily on attraction, but do not address the reasons why they tend to leave.
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Small communities struggle to retain needed internationally educated health-care professionals. Challenges will persist until the compounding effects of social and professional isolation are addressed.
Health-care workers protest over stalled contract negotiations with the provincial government in Montréal in October 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
To prevent a shortage of health workers, public expressions of appreciation need to be backed by policies that provide dignity, decent working conditions, accountability and appropriate remuneration.
Police officers speak to a health-care professional outside the emergency department at Toronto General Hospital during a protest against COVID-19 measures in September 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Although demanding, disruptive and violent patients are a major contributor to physician burnout, solutions to address this increasing problem are not a priority.
In addition to patient care, many doctors also have heavy administrative burdens, including insurance company requests and government forms that advocate for their patients’ needs, as well as all the challenges of running an office.
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Less than half of Canadians can see their doctor same-day, and millions don’t even have a family doctor. Improving access to care means providing doctors with the support they need to focus on patients.
Sleep-deprived paramedics are less able to understand how their patients feel.
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New research shows overworked, sleep-deprived health-care professionals are less empathetic to their patient’s needs compared to when they are well-rested.
Intensive care nurse Kathryn Ivey’s Tweet illustrates the impact of the pandemic on health-care workers. Used with permission.
@kathryniveyy/Twitter
Rates of burnout have increased alarmingly among health-care workers during the pandemic. Unless the system provides more support to its already depleted workforce, staff shortages may get worse.
The risk of COVID escaping from hotel quarantine or a health-care setting will never be zero. But in NSW and Queensland, was everything possible done to minimise the risk?
A resident chats with workers at Orchard Villa Long-Term Care in Pickering, Ont., in June 2020.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)
By 2030, the WHO projects a worldwide workforce shortfall of about 18 million health-care workers, with potentially deadly consequences for patients, economies and our communities.
Achieving high COVID-19 vaccine uptake among health workers will not only protect these critical staff members, it will also support high levels of uptake among the general public.
Health-care workers need public support. Hospital workers outside Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, July 17, 2020.
(OCHU-CUPE)
Ontario health-care workers confidentially reported feeling sacrificed on the job and needing protection from COVID-19 and other risky working conditions in a recent study.