At the General the night shift starts at 7PM and finishes at 7AM. Usually, they finish their paperwork, attend to the patients and are pretty much done by 10PM. Patients are usually all in bed by 10PM as well. Unless there is an incident, the nurse's work is pretty much done for the shift.
Much of the non-medical routine work is actually done by PSW's. One female PSW took a liking to me and kept bringing me fresh towels until I built a small towel mountain (LOL). Then one night she brought me what she thought was a pair of underwear until I told her it was actually a diaper (LOL). Anyway, she was the one who volunteered to help me shower. The nurse also volunteered but she couldn't do it until 10PM which was a bit late, especially since my roommate was in bed by 9:30PM and I didn't want to disturb his sleep.
I have only praise for the doctors, nurses, PSW's and staff at the General.
Find an excuse to walk into Mount Sanai Trauma Emergency if you want to see busy, and running ragged. A few dozen patients and a handful trying to get everything done. Not sure how scheduling is with respect to night shifts. No doubt, it’s “slow” but it’s also 7pm to 7am for however long.
Back in Wynnes day, before and following Drummond. A lot of scrutiny on the “cost” of public service. Wynne would say “we have the lowest headcount per capita in Canada”
We did and still do.And this is just RNs. Imagine what other areas of PS are like.
Ontario's ratio of RNs has declined even more – from 668 RNs-per-100,000 in 2021 to 661 RNs-per-100,000 in 2022. BC has the second-worst ratio, with 732 RNs-per-100,000. Manitoba and PEI did not report their data to CIHIthis year.
So with respect to OT. It’s not that they stay an hour or two late, here and there. They pick up 12hr shifts, or 8 hours ( sometimes extend) over and above their scheduled shifts to plug holes in the schedules. As I said, my niece ( no children) pre Covid, basically decided how many hours she wanted to work each week. 40 or however many she could handle.
Consider how much the GTAs population has grown over the past 5-10 years. Just to maintain that ratio. There would need to be 668 new hires each year, for each 100,000 new residents. Or use existing who are good with picking up 12hr shifts, to plug the holes. That’s why, the code blacks ( ERs shut down) occur. Not enough staff, that day.
