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Stories from BC’s Hospital Front Lines – The Missing Voices

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How are BC’s hospital workers coping after 20 months of this pandemic? Protect our Province BC decided to find out by asking them directly.

We published a survey asking these questions: How has COVID impacted you? How has it changed you? What do you want the public to know? What changes would you like to see in BC’s pandemic response?  

Read the responses from health care workers who have been on the front line for the entire pandemic, and the heart-breaking stories from close to two hundred hospital workers in response to our anonymous survey.

Note: The responses below are unfiltered and unedited, and were collected over the course of a single week.

Content warning: Please be aware that some of the content we will share is distressing to hear. The stories from BC’s hospital workers can be upsetting but we believe it is important for the public to know what BC’s frontline workers are experiencing during the pandemic. We will not be showing any graphic images or video content.  We hope that, as a viewer, you will give yourself the space and time that you need to process.

What is one word that you would use to describe the way you are feeling right now?

Health Workers Wordle
How are BC health workers feeling?

In which health authority do you work?

Health workers from across BC responded to our call for stories from the front lines. Nearly half of respondents work in either Fraser or the Interior Health Authorities.

Are you thinking of leaving health care?

A majority of survey respondents are considering leaving healthcare. Fewer than one in four are not considering another career path.

How long have you worked in health care?

How has COVID impacted you? Changed you?

Covid was the breaking point for me. I was already burned out, stressed, and depressed, from my job.
It's caused alot more anxiety and cause for concern for our overloaded Healthcare system
It has taken away the ability to provide the high standard of care and compassion I can provide to our sick and/or dying patients
Traumatized, dehumanized
yes, i work a lot of extra shifts to help my unit. i’m exhausted.
I have zero energy and no drive to continue to work in healthcare
Loved being called a hero last year as I did what I loved. But after seeing lots of adverse reactions to vaccines, I’ve decided not to get the shots and have been let go. From hero to zero…because I wasn’t willing to take an experimental vaccine. I was not willing to be coerced just to keep my job.
It’s made health care unsafe for nurses and doctors with increase capacity due to covid on an already failing over capacity hospitals and emergency’s
I have zero patience for people who feel the need to complain about healthcare and go against this vaccine mandate.
Working short, under high stress and with more acute patients has become the new norm. There are higher emotions as we all live under more stressful conditions.
Higher rates of people accessing emergency psychiatric care because their primary care network won’t see them in person. Patients having longer wait times to see a mental health therapist as the system is overburdened from covid. It’s also made it harder to Encourage patients to come to hospital because they are scared of contracting covid on the ward. Made me more anxious about having to provide care for a psychiatric patient that is having difficulty keeping a mask on or following covid protocols in hospital. Having to provide care for patients who don’t believe in covid.
Highly stressful workplace. Working consistently short staffed with more acute patient load
Mental health has declined. Financially struggling. Currently struggling with housing issues/instability. Resources, supports and coping abilities are completely limited. I am much more cynical of the world, humans and the future
It has turned me into a fearful, bitter, worn-out person.
I am a lead RN at a Covid vaccination center. Everyday over and over.
Dramatically stressful . Feeling short staffed all the time . The awful feeling that this could affect my health
I used to feel good about my job and happy at work. Now I often feel negatively and tired of it.
Made me sad and angry
Most certainly, as it has impacted everyone else in, and outside of healthcare. I find that I am less resilient, and after 19 years of nursing, a profession I love wholeheartedly, I find myself on the cusp of burnout. The trauma of the profession weighs heavy on my shoulders, and I feel an overwhelming sense of tiredness that permeates my core. I also feel guilt that I have not had more direct care with COVID patients, and that my colleagues in the city have born an unfair share of the burden of care.
Decreased my morale and love for my career.

Government’s lack of support, protection, proactive/preventive policy made me feel like sacrificial lamb. Very stressful working in setting with inadequate protection.

Financial hit as I reduced my hours when protective measures weren’t given to HCWs. Waited unnecessarily long for first, second and now third vaccine dose with evidence showing we’re at risk. Too many of us did not receive priority for vaccination even when doing same work, in same hospital with colleagues who got vaccinated early. Extremely stressful to wait and work around literally life threatening virus, especially once supply is not an issue. Absolutely cruel treat of workers who have born a disproportionate burden during the pandemic.
Yes. I worked on the covid unit
I stopped seeing all my friends and family, and hardly go out besides groceries. Used to do gym, run, ski & dine out frequently. My mother died of dementia & I couldn’t touch her for the last 6 months of her life until on her deathbed as LTC locked down. I also do exams on anti mask pts and am doing them on active COVID pts. I’m struggling to keep working & recognize the mental impact on my wellbeing.
I was an introvert before, now I am almost reclusive. I want nothing to do with restaurants or crowds. I am saddened by people's selfishness and every time I see our PHO at a sporting event I am angry. It's like being kicked in the face. I can't believe that the government values healthcare workers so little that we have to fight for the right to protect ourselves and our families. With n95s and vaccine access and adequate break rooms. I can't believe that there have not been safe zones established around hospitals to prevent protestors.

I can't believe we value the lives of children so little. That we are willing to subject them to unknown risks from this virus we know very little about. We have no idea of the long term potential repercussions of infection with SARS-CoV2. We should be using everything in our power to minimize transmission in schools and for children.
Opened my eyes to decision making and governance in hospitals
Hasnt changed anything
Professionally I have found myself more anxious, worried about not being able to provide services that were once available to my clients and less satisfied with my ability to do my job well.
It changed my perception of nursing in general. Has cause lots of anxiety for me and my family.
I want to quit nursing all together due to the under staffing, the deplorable behaviour from the anti-vax group/protesters, and the lack of support and validation from the employers. I used to LOVE my job, and now I hate it. My love of nursing and critical care is gone. My faith in humanity slips daily and I sacrificed too much of myself.
I feel isolated. I cannot see people i love and work has become harder and harder. The violence has increased. And it takes everything in me to get up and go to work daily.
Covid-19 has compelled me to reassess my priorities in life and focus more on my family and other interests (such as teaching) that I have. I’ve decided to work less clinically. On the bright side this change has allowed me to care more about my patients and spend more time helping them navigate our medical system and ensuring a positive experience.
My job as a nurse, the workload has increased, short staffed most of the time unsafe patient loads
It has used and abused me.
No end in sight. Question our healthcare leaders at this point.
Extra work and duties,chronic staff shortage, vilification of the unvaxed. Racism. Aggression.Psychological torment and burnout.
I’m frustrated with the management of the pandemic and wonder why we are still seeing so many hospitalizations and deaths. I’ve lost trust in public health leadership. I’m at a chronically lower mood and higher anxiety level than pre-pandemic. I am more socially reclusive because I am concerned about exposing myself to the virus. I don’t know how much longer I can tolerate the uncertainty of how and when we might expect to be “post-pandemic”.
More stress. Less workplace enjoyment. Despair in the public response.
The hardest part of nursing through the pandemic has been watching patients struggle to breath, and watching them tire from the work of breathing. Also, not allowing patients to have visitors, and seeing how this isolation affects the morale of patients has been very disheartening. I am very frustrated when I hear that covid "isn't life threatening" and when people dismiss it as a government conspiracy.
It has separated me from family. Most of my family lives in the US and travel has been restricted and/or difficult do to testing nd quarantine requirements. Throughout some of the lockdowns even seeing family that lived in BC was difficult. In addition some of family has chosen not to be vaccinated and this has created a divide in the family.
At work my site is “green”. I work in the OR so other than canceled elective cases (all we do) and room closures it hasn’t been bad. Expect they “redeploy” us to wards and urgent care and we have to risk our license work in areas without orientations, training or experience.
Lost my job of 21 years, unwanted, frustrated sad
Covid has created a crisis in healthcare related to access. Our people are more acute than ever.
Mentally and physical exhausting.
I am being forced to take a vaccine or lose my job
Yes. My mental health will never be the same again.
Impacted every aspect of my personal life. Shown me the best and the worst of human behaviour. Made me more guarded in my interactions. Made me more committed to beat this virus.
I can’t work as much due to difficulties around childcare esp when kids get URTIs
It is very unpredictable, and it's made me change my outlook on how important it is to protect others and get vaccinated.
I’m tired, sad, and feeling like nursing is a poor career choice
Exhausted working for unaccountable admin in MOH
I got Covid from work most certainly. I was alienated and the target of much gossip at work as I was one of the first few staff from my unit to contract it. My Manager informed me that I was not to return to work as my colleagues were "uncomfortable" with my return, even though I had been cleared from Public Health from an infectious standpoint to come back. I got asked questions by IPAC about where I had been, had I been to parties etc., none of which were applicable, and felt like a huge invasion into my personal life and privacy. IPAC asked me which patients had I seen in the few days leading up to my positive test, and WHY was I seeing them. I have never felt so scrutinized in all of my life. I had to defend why I do my job and how I prioritize my patient caseload.

Now, well over a year since my infection, I still don't feel completely myself. I have more brain fog and fatigue that strikes suddenly and unexpectedly. My legs get painful shooting tingling sensations that run rapidly from my lower spine to my foot whenever I am sitting in one position for more than a few minutes. It makes it challenging in rounds to have to constantly adjust my sitting position in order to be comfortable.

At work, most frontline staff are exhausted. We are tired from being short staffed and the nurses are bearing the brunt of it. We are being asked to do more with less. Since vaccination, I would say the fear of Covid (of catching it) has lessened, but the work environment is forever changed. Will we ever go back to a maskless workplace??? I don't think so.
Yes, I was forced to retire early because of the mandates
I have never been angry, worried and sad all at the same time.
changed my work with way less in person appointments (which changes the dynamics of patient care but much better with video vs phone). I feel like I do way less for me outside of work. I don't feel comfortable going to the gym any more for example and with a six year old child my partner who is a Nurse is doing lots of weekend covid testing/vaccination clinics so it is more single parenting weekends. It's made me more anxious in certain circumstances and at times like when a patient isn't wearing their mask it distracts me from the patient care.
Covid changed everything. Policies regarding Covid, at the beginning of the pandemic, were changing hour to hour on some days. Everyone was fearful. The workload just kept increasing, but no additional supports were provided by employer. The nursing shortage was already a huge strain on the system before Covid. Pandemic just through a huge spotlight in what we already knew. Covid made the nursing shortage worse. Nurses were taking early retirement rather than work in these unsure and dangerous times.
Increase burn out
Increased stress
I used to love nursing in high acuity, but developed such severe PTSD from being on the frontlines of covid that I took a leave and then left bedside entirely. I tried to gradually return to work but 5 nurses were assaulted within a week of my return (unprecedented violence for our floor), our covid cohort reopened, and it felt very physically and psychologically dangerous to be back at bedside. I will never be the same, or see people the same, after what I have been through. I had many decades ahead of me in the high acuity specialty and would have happily carried on if the pandemic and subsequent staffing crisis hadn't created such horrible working conditions. Now I work happily in a primary care clinic at a university, but most of my colleagues at my old unit who want to leave aren't able to get out as management won't give them references or continually gets them redeployed back to the unit.
It has made me feel isolated. It has put more work on to me.
It has made me very sad.
It’s made hard things even harder.

It’s also made me feel expandable and gaslighted by my organization and colleagues.

I feel little, inconsequential, and hurt.

I am more angry in general, and it spills over to my family life, which is unfair.
Majorly. We were short staffed before the pandemic and now much of our time in public health is spent on COVID. This means less time for our youth clinics, prenatal and postpartum families, and school based immunizations have been delayed
While I have come to the realization that this pandemic will now be shouldered by us indefinitely on the front lines, I have not completely come to terms with it. I knew as an ER doctor that I would always be called upon when things were at their worst, but as the messaging to the public seems to fade about the reality on the ground esp in acute care and hospitals with overcrowding and cancelled surgeries, etc, I feel gaslit by the authorities. I feel we are left alone to fight in the trenches and completely abandoned.
I am on leave for PTSD. I was a new icu RN, and we were so short staffed I was responsible for 6 covid patients in icu. 2 were from medical nurses, and I was responsible for monitoring them, had 2 on my own, and break coverage if that even happened. I felt like I was not enough, couldn’t be enough, and was terrified of missing something. Even days I only had 1 patient, the experienced RNS had 4 patients to 1 nurse. So I couldn’t even ask for guidance, because they were so busy with their own patients. Patients couldn’t get proned because we had such little staff and sometimes patients remained proned too long. I am so traumatized by my experience, that I have panic attacks daily. I felt alone, and felt like lives were in my hands and I had to figure it out. It was so traumatizing.
I have lost faith in the ability of our health care system to be effective
COVID has greatly increased the case load I have, increasing in complexity and severity. Our staffing levels have dropped to an all time low, leaving the bare minimum staff to work in unprecedented conditions. I am now responsible to complete more roles and duties that are not typically mine, just so patients can remain safe during this pandemic. I am also now expected to take on direct COVID related duties such as swabbing and vaccinating - on top of my already heavy case load. I feel hopeless, angry, and overwhelmed every day. It has vastly affected my mental health - insomnia, outbursts of emotions, etc. The added stress has made me withdrawn from my relationships too, family, friends, my fiancé. I am not the same person I once was.
Made me less trusting of others. I feel exhausted.
It has made me bitter about politics (NDP) and misinformation. Very disappointed in leadership. I’m not as social. I don’t travel anymore.
Endless paperwork, feeling like I’m barely seeing patients, it’s just more “informal” support, wasting time
It made me change departments as the one I was working in and the patient population serviced throughout the pandemic was greatly effecting my mental health and how I interacted with my family.
a lot of stress/anger is wrongly directed at nurses. family are calling getting mad at us for not being allowed to visit. patients are mad at us for restrictions. other departments are requiring more from us ex. forcing our unit to be "code nurses" and part of the code team when we are not adequately experienced/trained due to strains on ICU.
Forever
It has taken my time away from direct care to my patients due to the extra time involved to Don and doff PPE.When there were no families able to visit, this increased my workload, screening visitors increased my workload. I work in a hospice that utilizes volunteers for feeding, answering call bells, delivery trays, with no volunteers able to come this also increased our work load.
Keeping up with the constant change in policies and procedures was exhausting and irritating at times.
Watching people die without their loved ones was extremely difficult.not being able to hug my patients or Theo families was painful. Having our entire hospice unit basically wiped out due to a Covid outbreak was terrifying, exhausting and just so so sad.
Makes work more challenging. Also thinking, attempting to keep clients and self safe. More stress or work, people are anxious, staff gatherings difficult to build cohesive team….
It has made my job way more difficult in acuity and volume. I’m worried about what I bring home. The aggression of patients is much higher due to the stressors and increased wait times.
Covid has made everything worse. Everything is so much harder. It’s made me too exhausted to care about so many things.
Increased workload, anxiety
I am fearful of being around people
It has changed the way we do EVERYTHING. We have to second guess and question everything that would normally be second nature (like responding to emergencies - life and death situations).There are crucial seconds and minutes of live saving measures that are now set aside because there are new protocols and procedures in place before we can perform any action on a patient. We can’t socialize and mingle the way we used to.
Staff haven’t had a Christmas party or any other team building party in 2 years because of the restrictions in place.
No more pot lucks at work.

The stress, burn out, fatigue and critical staffing issues are so much worse than ever before.

No one wants to come to work anymore. They just have to.
We’re barely surviving now.
Drastically. Massive staffing shortages. Constant poor administrative response.
I’m not sure how to answer this question specifically but what I can say is that I think differently, react differently in some
situations, and have a greater awareness. These may all seem like good things, but they have had a toll on who I am and the energy I have in my daily life. I think differently by constantly analyzing how each interaction in my life could have an ill effect on me, my family, or my patients. For example, even touching a door knob, or items at the grocery store could effect my life or those in it. This is difficult for me; I’ve always been quite laidback, but with Covid I’ve really struggled with mental exhaustion. I worked the first half of the pandemic while pregnant, expecting my second child that took some time and effort to conceive, so I would be devastated if anything happened to him. I think differently and am conscientious of my surroundings in order to protect my family, friends, and patients. This can be quite exhausting, both mentally and physically.
I’m just enduring not enjoying my career
It has affected my mood, sleep and personal relationships. In the height of it, last winter through until May, it made work seem unbearable at times. Exhausting, frustrated, burnt out.
My trust in my employer and worksafeBC has diminished since COVID-19. Their failure to follow the science, or learn from the previous SARS outbreak is concerning to me. I'm constantly worried that I will bring home a breakthrough case of Covid to my 88 year old father or 78 year old mother, whom I care for in their home. The 2 day incubation period and atypical presentation in elders leaves employees wearing only surgical masks at risk of breakthrough infections.
It has made me think more and more about what is important in life and that we need to live for ourselves and not our careers
I feel exhausted and not feeling much hope of am end in sight. I usually am a open minded person and respects others opinions but with Covid i am just angry and divided from people who are not vaccinated
Exhausted, burnt out, depressed and frustrated. Have had a number of personal losses during covid.
Made my job more difficult, short staffed, I got covid at work had long termed health issues. Increased stress at work.
Exhausted me, traumatized me, made my pregnancy far more stressful
I've become more anxious, mentally exhausted. Loss of empathy to others. Physically, I've gained weight. It has aged me.
Immensely- Im leaving my beloved career
Covid just made us tired frustrated sleepless nights and we are abused by pts
Its destroyed my life
Total burnout
Potentially taking my ability to earn an income away, regardless of a bon a fide reason for a medical exemption that’s not included in the PHO’s short list.
The pandemic has changed me, making me jaded and causes me to really struggle even having any positive emotions towards my job or our healthcare system. It is so broken in so many ways.
Impacted me and my family so much. Yes I am not my usual self.
Yes , Some Dr’s not following covid protection for patients or staff . Hospital management not taking responsibility towards those Dr’s for protecting patients and staff . Hospital management not protecting patients or staff either
I'm having a very hard time to be empathetic and offer compassionate care, whereas before covid I've never had this issue
It has shaken my faith in people doing right by their neighbours. The selfishness in some people has been disappointing.
It has made me realize that we are considered an expendable resource and that our employer/government will not protect me at my place of employment. It has made me realize that “optics” is more important to the employer than ACTUAL patient care. I never thought about leaving my profession until this year. While I may not leave immediately, I know with all certainty that I cannot do this job u til retirement.
COVID has also had me miss vacation time and days off with loved ones due to “exposures” at work. Working short has become the norm. Every shift I show up dreading to find out how many nurses we are short.
Increased stress levels, high anxiety, depression, difficulty being able to sleep, and feelings of never being able to do enough due to staffing levels being so short constantly. Working long hours constantly and picking up as we all feel like we need to give more, even though or tanks are on empty.
Burnt out. Tired of working short. Disheartened to be suspended from work currently. I want to work but am unable to.
I’m weary and disgusted by how little respect people have for others with a different opinion
I hate the profession that I just graduated into, I hate the program that my unit has turned into. I am at a point where I’m here to collect a pay check and move on.
The risks in healthcare have increased, which increased stress for all. Sick days are running low as we are required to get a negative swab and miss work anytime we are symptomatic. The increased levels of depression and stress among the general public has caused an increase in stress and abuse to healthcare workforce.
I have become a nurse who is only at work for my patients. If I didn’t care so much for them, I would be selling medical equipment/supplies. I no longer care about the organization.
Significantly declined my mental health, anxiety, fear going into work, dreading work
This is scary , hard times
I dont care as much
Highlights the overdue crisis in health care
It has shown me how little Administration and management care about patients or healthcare workers. I knew it before but this just amplified how out of touch and how little they know about healthcare.
Registered Psychiatric Nurse
I've lost all passion for nursing and have little faith in people. I have seen and faced so much unnecessary abuse in ER related to COVID and people's opinions. I've watched countless people die unnecessarily, all unvaccinated. I'm exhausted and constantly looking for other employment but cannot afford to change careers financially.
I’m angry all the time now. I don’t like people anymore. I don’t trust them to do the right thing. I don’t trust my colleagues to do the right thing and stand up for us and our patients, because they don’t. I don’t want to be a nurse anymore, as I feel I can only give substandard care in our current system.
Burned out, want to leave profession, retire asap
It hasn’t. We have had no COVID in our facility, but we lost nurses of an already short staffed area.
Covid has changed my perception on the public of how little and selfish the loud minority is regarding the safety of others around them. I feel tired and burnout from the amount of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers with how little they care. I feel the government and union has not supported nurses whatsoever in these past 2 years; underpaid and the acuity of the patients taking up space in the ICU.
Sleep deprivation, cortisol levels heightened, short staffed every shift, strained relationship with colleagues and management, resentment for staff calling in sick. I’ve NEVER seen the turnover on my unit like it is right now. Crying before, during and after work.
Increased stress, burnout, loss of hope and relationships
I question how much longer I can be a nurse. I am exhausted, I am feeling in crisis. I feel like nothing will ever be the same. I used to think I could work another 15-20 years, but if something doesn't change, I dont know if I'll want to be in another 5. I am looking at options for retraining. More concerning to me, I am questioning my career choice in the first place.
I find difficult as PCC to see the staff working short all the time: It increase my work too as I want to support my colleagues and make sure we maintain a good quality and safe patient care. We have been canceling some surgery (the easy one!) however our surgical patients are heavier and more complex as they had major complex cancer surgeries. The hospital is always congested but now with less nurses forcing us to send patient home very quickly. I find the moral is low on the unit, everyone is overwhelmed and burned out. I personally wish I could retire now and not in 6 years from now as the stress is super high and even affecting my personal health.
It has changed my desire to work in mental health. I have loved working in mental health for my entire career (16 years) but after covid hit, the work load tripled and it started to drain me. I noticed myself getting increasingly more depressed because I was talking to people on the phone all day long that wanted to die by suicide. I had to take a medical leave for my mental health and my physical health. I am currently looking for another job.
I loved caring for people as a nurse in acute care- surgical. Now I have anxiety leading up to my shifts- wondering how short staffed we will be, and if I will go another 12 hour shift without a break. I am 7 years into my nursing career and considering changing careers. I do not recommend nursing as a profession to anyone anymore.
Covid has exacerbated an already broken health care system to the point that it is completely unsafe and unsustainable. It isn't just ICUs that are flailing. Patients are being moved out of ICUs, or bypassing them completely, due to capacity issues and some of these people are dying because they are not getting the care they should be. New graduate RNs are working entirely alone on acute, surgical units and are expected to be Charge Nurse immediately and with very little training or support. We are not being supported, and as a result, our patients are suffering. I haven't had one single day in the last two years where I feel that I have done my job effectively.
Our patients deserve world class Healthcare, instead of getting that, we are managing to "make due" with old equipment and inappropriate staffing levels because we are not being allocated enough funding to meet the needs of our growing population. I am disheartened and discouraged to continue my work in nursing.
After an already stressful time working in healthcare with constant overcrowding, no beds, no time to care properly for patients and always dealing with staff shortages. Covid brought on a different type of stress. Scared, mad, fear of the unknown. I had never been afraid to go to work until COVID. I have lost all passion for my nursing career I’m just going through the motions now waiting for my pension. We were totally unsupported and have zero plan for a pandemic response. Still to this day Covid patients are mixed with non Covid because there is simply not enough space. It’s like living in what I would assume would be third world healthcare but this is Canada. Nursing staff are also very underpaid For the job we do. I would never go into nursing if I had to do it all over or never let my daughter,
It has made me not want to nurse anymore. I am so done with taking care of myself last.
Covid-19 has impacted me immensely for a number of reasons.
The first main one is my job. I worked on the front lines in the emergency and on the covid ward many shifts. I helped many grandparents, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles. I was considered a hero for doing my job in 2020 and now in 2021 things are different. I am being terminated from my front line job because I am making the choice to choose not to take the vaccine. I followed the PPE protocols and did my job all the while never contracting the virus myself. So why can’t this continue? I understand people do die from this virus and I take it seriously, but why should front line workers get terminated for just simply doing there job so willingly. This is completely inappropriate. Staffing issues are already such a big problem and with staff not being left a choice there will be even bigger problems across the countries.
Secondly, seeing how this virus has divided families is super disheartening. Cherish every moment you have with family and friends. Go visit your elderly (grand)parents today..before it’s to late. Not in a few months when maybe they will give in to getting the vax. Don’t live in fear and let it interfere with how you live your life and do daily things.
So to answer this question, yes covid has impacted and changed my life into a different course.
I don’t know how to answer this easily. COVID has impacted every part of my life. It has encroached on my ability to do my job as we are seeing a nursing shortage unlike ever before; as patient acuity increases, our nurse-patient ratio does too; the simple gesture of providing a patient with a warm blanket is affected and second guessed with the thought of gowning up and down… etc. It has affected how I view society and how I view my community — simple tasks like going to the grocery store brings me so much anger as I see so many people unmasked. It has affected my relationships with family and friends; the divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated. Working in a small community I have removed myself from so many important events with family and friends. The thought of passing Covid to any of these people and then being the person to care for them when they come in with covid has made me recluse myself. For being an extroverted person, two years of hiding away in my basement suite has done nothing positive for my mental health.
COVID has stripped me of my positive nature; impaired my patience in the workplace; affected my ability to provide compassionate care; and made me second guess a career I used to love and be proud of.
Absolutely!
I went from full-time to casual and burnt out. Constant fatigue. Lacking empathy
Confronted by a disease that I could carry home and cause harm or death to me or a family member is challenging enough. Watching members of the public follow garbage information about COVID and the vaccine via social media has been disheartening.

I went into this with an open mind and a strong belief in the importance of patient autonomy. What I am learning though is that my 11 years of scientific and medical education and 20 years of ER experience is perceived as less valued by some than what they read on Facebook. The pandemic is a giant Code Orange and many in the public don't understand this.

So I work my shifts, trying to provide the best care I can with some of the tools I was trained to use unavailable to help my patients. Many are struggling as they await elective surgeries that are postponed due to ICU bed closures, shortages in part caused by vaccine hesitancy and a 4th wave of the unvaccinated.

So I work my ER shifts without many nurses and allied health workers who have quit due to the stress of the pandemic. Now, often we are routinely short nurses and other health workers. Now I find myself with agency nurses I have only just met, trying to create a team to help the sickest patients without the familiarity and trust inherent in a group who have worked together for years.

I am used to working in a challenging environment. I am used to stress. Trauma, mental health crises, patient resuscitation are all stressful. What is different here is that now I am vilified by a large proportion of society who see me as a sellout to big pharma, a co-conspirator in some complex scheme to take over their freedom.

And so, I am getting tired of it. And if and when I decide to leave, who will be there to take care of you?
Working in a pandemic, I have seen my colleagues become burnt out and hardened. I have seen the approach to patient care become jaded and judgemental. The COVID care context has stretched the staff far beyond what we thought possible and my colleagues capacity for caring has completely diminished.
Moral distress, ptsd. Anxiety and depression
COVID has stressed me to the max. Moral injury at my workplace is rampant and I feel it every single day. We have raised a COVID child who has had very little interaction with other children up until recently and I have a stay-at-home partner who has suffered immensely from social isolation.
It has made working in the hospital very challenging with increas patient demands and lack of resources.
Many ways: 1) big financial hit. I am now working more than I've worked since residency to make up for the shortfall. My income dropped by at least a third at the beginning of the outbreak. Almost normal now. 2) Work kind of sucks. ED crowding is worse. Morale is down (especially amongst nurses). Sick of wearing a mask. Sick of all the PPE and precautions and not seeing people's faces. Fucking sick of COVID. Sick of the polarization in society 3) Super disheartening to see all the crazy and nasty people. While I respect the right to question lockdowns etc. and people asking questions about the safety of a new type of vaccine, there is a new level of scientific illiteracy/paranoia/craziness/nastiness here that has really made me lose my hope in humanity to a degree
Following the first wave of the pandemic I experienced my first burnout. I did not see it coming but it was profound. My experience of hopelessness came from the rebound and overwhelming patient volumes in the ER, when everyone else had the "power" to turn patients away and "protect" their work environments...however we could not. Telemedicine also significantly WORSENED our ED work environment and led to an increase in frustrated patients that did not have any other routes of care available. Our nursing staff felt unsupported and discouraged which led to severe staffing shortages. Overall - the beginning of the pandemic came with a surge of increased engagement and pride - as it wore on - it led to rebound burnout and feeling of hopelessness.
Many Physicians will not treat Covid infections
I have been terminated from my job for not getting the vaccine
Isolation, depression, fear, job loss, discriminated against due to my non-vax stand
Harshly
The combined effects of the pandemic, vaccination mandates and work place conditions have given me extreme levels of anxiety, stress and fear presenting themselves in both physically and mentally.
FRUSTRATED with worldwide response. Bad public health decisions.
I’ve been fired from my mostly administrative job (do not provide direct patient care) for not being vaccinated
Covid promoted fear and separation, and it affects my relationship with another human being.
Lost my job because not vaxxed. Definitely don't believe what the government and Media says now.
I will loose my job after 22 mos of this
It has made me more aware of government control and the tyrannical practices of the financially elite members of the world.
Yes, it has impacted my life both professionally and personally for myself and my partner.
I am a nurse who worked, volunteered for the Emergency Covid Teams for long term care, then was put on leave due to vaccination status.
My partner is a instructor at a post secondary institution who had programs cancelled and lost months worth of work.
Redeployed me from my quality assurance/improvement job back to the bedside in the ICU after 3.5 years away. 🙁
Gave me PTSD , stress, job lost
Gave me PTSD,
Physically no, mentally, absolutely, I cannot believe the lies told, the responses of people, Employers and the Government.
The pure insanity of humanity, the hypocrisy, the only way I can describe it is as pure evil.
I am tempted to speak freely without fear of consequences because with all that is happening and all that is being lost, it may be freeing to just speak with HONESTY.
It has made me closer to my family but as negatively effected my workplace
Because of the covid "measures", not covid, and "the way" the government brought in an explained (or didn't explain) their reasoning behind these drastic/exaggerated measures, I have reached a level of depression and suicidality I didn't know was possible for me. It has caused me to be unsafe at work and I currently cannot practice. My team at the hospital was desperate for staff before covid, and now the situation at work with regards to staffing is even more dire, purely because of the decisions and quality of life Bonnie Henry has taken away, without any accountability. I have been known throughout my whole life as being a critical thinker, and no one can convince me, especially with the depth of knowledge I have, that the covid measures that continue to get worse to this day, were & are close to necessary. We should have behaved as Sweden did in order to save lives. There is no further discussion about this. This is what needs to be emulated.
The backlash it has had on the hospital is unmatched which has a direct impact on my every day life. Patients are coming in sicker, so are staying for longer. It has also been a part of my every day conversation for the last 2 years which has made me afraid of flying or venturing too far away from home so I haven’t left Vancouver Island in over two years.
increased volume of patients, increased expectations from patients, limitation of primary care obvious, incongruity of patients declining immunization yet wanting other less proven western medicine interventions
Significantly burnt out, no longer love my job, exposed to covid 4+ times
I lost faith in our politicians and my health authority. I have been gaslighted to the point of leaving hospital work after 10 years.
It's made me trust my employer less. I do not feel as though they protect me anymore. They make decisions based on supply chain and not on science or worker protection.
Covid has made everything in my life harder. I was unable to see my parents for two years- due to travel restrictions. I was unable to continue meeting with my recovery support friends face to face. I was unable to support my patients who suffer from extreme marginalization. It made me so scared and so ethically challenged everyday. I watched my colleagues turn on each other. I watched the public vilify nurses and hcp. Covid broke my heart.
It initially made me fearful to go to work throughout most of 2020. I had to put my masters level education on hiatus. 2021 brought relief initially with the vaccines and it has now changed into anger, defeat, and frustration with the misinformation that is being spread around. I no longer feel my union speaks for my values and is making a mockery of our science-based profession. I feel like nurses value and knowledge has been shaken by this and I tell people to not take my advice on anything medical but the most mundane common-sense things. We are working short almost every day now. I am tired of arguing for what is fair with management and government not intervening when it was clear we would be in a staffing crisis decades ago. I am tired of working overtime or working with no breaks so I can get home on time. I have had to leave my kids waiting in the cold or alone at home many times in the past year and a half. I am tired from losing sleep when I come home because I’m worried I didn’t do enough to help everyone in need that shift. If I could leave this profession for an equivalent paying job, I would do it in a heartbeat.
It is draining me mentally and physically. It made me burned out to the point I had to switch from working a lot of hours into working less due to more responsibilities imposed but with less man power.
Changing my job, questioning if I should leave Healthcare.
I have gone through the ups and downs of career burnout due to Covid. The burnout is caused by being willing and able to do whatever is needed to provide healthcare, but in an environment with an employer who gaslights the employees regularly regarding safe workplace practices.
I no longer enjoy being a nurse because of the political stuff that has come down on us. The workload has become too much
I no longer feel like I make a difference. I am exhausted and can barely go to work each day.
It made me loose faith in management and in my employer after seeing the extent of cover up, lies, neglect, and corruption. It changed me in a sense that trust will never get re-built.
Poor coping skills. Lots of health issue myself. Loss a lot of hair due to stress. Endless overtime and insufficient notices call.
It taught me to be true to myself and value truth, justice and freedom and fight for these no matter what the cost is.
Broke my long term relationship up, lost friends and distanced family, isolation and segregation from community, covid has increased overdoses and suicides at an alarming rate more so than covid deaths combined and between 2020-2021 alone 8 friends of mine died from the toxic drug supply and the forgotten pandemic (opioid crisis) and one friend from suicide so I have struggled with grief and loss, and altogether my mental health has been very poor, I have been on medical leave due to exacerbated PTSD symptoms for all of the above.
Covid has tested my ability to maintain a positive outlook, it’s here for the long haul and nothing has changed in terms of safe staffing. I’m frustrated on a frequent basis and angry that so many politics are involved and that in itself has resulted in lives lost. My ability to be empathetic is dwindling.
It has exaggerated the already flailing healthcare
It made me look for another position, rather than working in ER all the time
i'm angry, sad, burnt out, pessimistic, frustrated, losing my ability to care,
I have become very dsappointed by health care especialy public health.
There have been so mnay more overdose deaths as a result of the covid narrative. feel all the vaccine mandates are a human right violation, the ongoing censoring of health experts is very concernng, the ongoing lies and deception in the media does not sit well with me. I have loved nursing but the covid response has crossed a line for me, i will leave my profession next year
I have lost friends due to difference in opinions. I am sad to see the state our province is in. I have NO faith in Dr Henry, Adrian Dix or Mr Horgan. Dr Henry has NO integrity left, when did she actually treat a covid patient? My guess is NEVER. She tells the people of our province whatever BS they tell her to say. We have NO leaders in this province with any amount if integrity or balls to stand up and say NO MORE! Since when do we treat a disease process with a vaccine, what happened to prevention or EARLY treatment at home? I have been nursing for over 30 yrs and we always investigate early treatment options. Why has no one asked Dr Henry this?
Decrease my trust iand confidence n the health care sustem
The Covid pandemic has put serious pressure on our Healthcare system including my place of work at the hospital. As result, it has created more stress, decreased quality of care and an overall increased job dissatisfaction for me.
It has made me question my choice of profession and how so many have decided to abandon medical ethics in such a dire time.
I am much more jaded and find that I have less patience for patients when I find out they are unvaccinated. The changes to the job, the short staffing that seems so much worse and the constant change in critical care is exhausting
It has caused me to loose faith in my community, my healthcare system, my government and my humanity.
Will be terminated. Before mandate working everyday with NO issue.
Yes, much less compassion for people after increased violence at work, going to work in a health authority that has done very little to protect its employees, shown us that could not care about us at all, the lack of extra cleaning provided to us to keep us and our patients safe was shocking and horrifc. No wonder why outbreaks where happening, but hey it's all the nurses fault for not vaccinating. Not the no extra cleaning, double high acuity workloads with no staffing support.
Very stressed and feeling very uncomfortable with the fact that I had to take the job or lose my job
It has made a difficult job even harder
I thought I would work in the ER until I finished my career. Honestly. I worked as a student nurse (ESN) in the ER in between my third and fourth year of university. I remember watching my first code in the trauma bay and knowing that this work, ER nursing, was my purpose.
Over the last 12 years I've spent time, energy, blood, sweat and tears becoming an amazing ER nurse. The job comes at great cost, but it was worth the price for the tight knit community of nurses I worked with, the satisfaction of a job well done, and the feeling of making a difference.

Covid changed it all. There was hardly a difference to be made. It was like being pushed underwater over and over without being able to catch a breath. The gap became wider and wider between the care I could provide, and the care I knew the patient needed. I was angry at my boss, at the system, for acting like this was a bilp on the radar as we haemorrhaged staff and were overwhelmed, daily, by patient numbers we'd never seen before. I can be one good nurse, but when I was asked to be three good nurses at once, I couldn't straddle the gap any longer, so I fell.

People who sit in offices call it moral distress, but they don't have to sit in isolation gear for 6 hours at a time, sweat dripping down your back, your fingers prune-y in the double gloves looking into a wide-eyed patient that is hungry for air. The fear, the desperation that looks at you for an ounce of hope when you know there isn't one to be had. They call it moral distress-it feels like hell, maybe it is.

I'm tired in my bones now. I wasn't before, not even as I nursed my babies, but I'm tired now. I want the world to stop and be quiet, because I need to catch my breath. I need to sleep, but I don't sleep anymore. The screaming, the crying, the swearing, the struggling, the defiance, the anger, and the grief of patients and families sill live in my head, and it is hard to silence the voices.

Even though it's not like me at all, I am by nature a verbal processor, I don't want to talk about it, any of it. It's completely unrelatable to those outside the medical system, and those within it have their own trauma and stories. I can't handle any more stories.

I teach now. I know I'll never love it like I loved the ER, but maybe then it won't break my heart in the same way either.
COVID has exhausted me beyond what I was aware was possible.

What do you want the public to know?

They are the ones that are going to suffer, as more health care workers quit their fields.
The Healthcare system is broken
I used to be a good nurse
Nursing is about the human experience, nurses are traumatized.
Constant battle in maintaining protocols in place , short staffed which has become even worse since vaccine mandate increasing workload that contributes to burnout and nurses leaving the profession
it’s real
How much impact (expenses and moral distress) this has on our healthcare system and to people impacted by Covid
Adverse reactions are real. These vaccines don’t do what they promised. Unless you’re 60+ or have several commorbidities, the shots are not worth the risk. Better vaccines are needed. I’ll wait.
Every time another patient is added to a nurses assignment death rates increase by 10% for each patient
That we need to band together. It’s time to fight covid away forever. Healthcare is a burden and exhausting. We’re all so tired. Please just get vaccinated and stop treating your front line staff like trash
That even though they may not know someone who got seriously ill from Covid, there are enough people being hospitalized that it impacts all areas of Healthcare.
They need to know how debilitating covid is and the long term mental health effects of living through a pandemic, living with long covid, and support is not easily available.
We need major system changes to improve a crumbling healthcare system
Our healthcare system is broken and I don’t have much hope for the future
That nurses are burnt-out, tired, and our healthcare system is broken.
The CBC released stats last night. 19,000 Canadians lost their lives during COVID-19 so far. Lets put this in perspective, Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 6,946 apparent opioid toxicity deaths occurred as well. Since 2016, Health Canada's has estimate 22,828 apparent opioid toxicity deaths. The truth is, were fighting more than one war and its not just in hospitals.
We are so tired of watching people die with this virus
I don’t think there’s anything left to say. Nurses will still take good care of you regardless of your vaccine status. We’re just so frustrated that so much of this is preventable now.
Get vaccinated and do your part to stop the spread of Covid! Help us!
What a nurse actually does in their shift. How little we are paid for the huge responsibility we carry
That there is no beauty in it. Comforts once offered to your patients aren’t possible. It robs people of their humanness, and it robs me as a caregiver in that I cannot maintain it for them.
The situation in hospitals is worse than government is saying. There are more people in hospital because of Covid than is publicly reported.

Shortages being blamed on mandates is frustrating because shortages, cancelled surgeries and procedures were happening before mandates. And the vast majority of HCWs don’t want unvaccinated co-workers. They put the rest of us, patients and workers, at risk. I would rather work more and longer hours to cover those who are out because they chose not to vaccinate than work alongside unvaccinated co-workers.

Hospital RNs are being re-deployed on a regular basis to ICU, Emergency, other units. This is stressful for many reasons AND while working in those areas we have not been given the same vaccinations as those who permanently work there although we share equal risk.
The vaccine isn’t a hoax! It keeps people who are more vulnerable, safe.
COVID isn’t done with us yet, we have to keep our guard up. In person indoor events shouldn’t be happening.
1. Get to your screening appointments. Over the last two years people haven't gone for annual exams, mammograms, colonoscopies. Granted there is a backlog. But we are witnessing first hand a dramatic increase in cancer. Cancers that should have been detected sooner.

2. Be nice to the lab workers when you go to get your lab testing. They are not okay. They are burned out like everyone else. They are tired of being abused by people.

3. There has been no increase in covid testing capacity (at least in my hospital) in over a year. There are no plans to increase it. There is no staff to do any additional testing anyways.
Get vaccinated. Protect yourself with good fitting masks when you are in indoor public spaces.
Humble, pray and get vaccinated
We don’t like what is happening either.
Nurses are working really hard in some unfavorable situations.
We have given our EVERYTHING to help and save lives, given so much of ourselves that we have broken. We are not quitting because of mandates, we are quitting because we are exhausted, tired, and broken.
Stop the spread of misinformation. Stop the hate. Nurses are tired.
That mRNA vaccines are extremely safe
Everyone in healthcare is doing their best but such short staffed units the care is not up to standards.
I do not support mandates. I do support vaccines. Our hospitals were bursting at the seams before the pandemic and now we are facing a broken system. I want to see substantial funding towards increasing hospital capacity. That means it needs to match the population and it’s expected growth AND allow for some unexpected circumstances such as our current predicament.
There are more people coming in with vaccine reactions than are recorded
They have dedicated well trained professional caregivers.
COVID is airborne. We need N95 respirators.
COVID positive movement policies - public health rules protect patients to the extent that covid positive patients can move freely in hospitals if they wish - including taking public elevators to go outside and smoke while covid positive. While noble to protect the marginalized and sick, this does not balance the health of all needing safe hospital access. This is minuted in town hall proceedings (St Paul’s hospital). Medical staff have expressed severe discomfort but organizations and public health remain firm yet will not disclose this info to patients/public.
This puts care providers in severe ethical dilemma.
That the vaccines work. Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent serious illness from covid.
Get vaccinated
They’re being lied to, your medical stance is not what defines you or is anyone’s business
We will never get back to normal without your help. Vaccinations are key and will be the "new normal".
Unload our workload.
There are many people coming in with post vaccine illnesses - more than covid
Access your public health first. Everything is not for the emergency department.
They have a responsibility to take care of themselves. To do the right things. We don't have all the answers. We can't fix everything and really our ability to change acute health circumstances is quite limited though we never give up.
That Acute care is highly overcapacity and that these issues, especially for surgical access, are predicted to last years due to lack of staff (especially nurses)
It's real, take it seriously please.
Nurses work all out for 12 hour shifts. We leave feeling like we couldn’t do a good job because the workload is absolutely inhuman. We don’t get the wages & off time that are reported publicly, we don’t get time off when we need it, and the shift work is brutal. If nursing were a male dominated profession instead of female, we would have much better workloads, much less violence unreported or tolerated, and much much higher pay. Health authorities spend billions on more & more managers, equipment, renovations, and even landscaping but keep cutting back on the people who do the actual work of caring for people. The system is unsustainable because it is poorly managed.
Broken and unaccountable chain of command starting with MOH and PHO causes deliberate data suppression. Our public system is not just broken. Bullying, threats against speaking out, no responses to questions about sources of bad data, “no reply” confusing email broadcasts from Health Authorities, scandalous cover-ups and double speak from Premier are an accepted part of daily life.
Staffing shortages. We work short in the ER almost every shift. Multiple staff
That just because there are no limits on things like concerts, restaurants, coffeeshops, night clubs, bars, etc. doesn't make those things/places a good idea to attend/visit. Covid is airborne and entering into an indoor space greatly increases your risk.

That transplant is not a golden ticket to the sickest Covid cases. These patients often do not do well and take weeks to months to wean off of ventilators, even after their lung tx. They are weak and need ++ rehab. Most spend months in hospital after transplant.
There are treatments available for covid that are safe and effective.
By putting others at risk you are not exercising right for freedom of choice.
the huge impact on the health care system....even if they don't get significant hospitalizing symptoms they could spread it to someone who does and that health care system is so fragile especially with the demands required for Covid patients. affects everyone.
I’ve been off work for 4 months. I was forced to take medical leave. I’ve applied for a WorkSafeBC claim. During this process I’ve had to have a psychological assessment. I was told by psychologist that my claim would likely be denied. Stated that the stress and moral distress I experienced at work are essentially the way the hospitals choose to operate. WorkSafeBC has no jurisdiction to ask them to make the work place safer for me (or any other healthcare worker). My take away from this experience is that the hospitals will continue to force staff to work short, in conditions where we cannot provide high quality, safe care until there is a complete collapse of the system. I have given 2 decades of service as a nurse and I sit here utterly dejected.
We need to start voting for leaders and parties that value healthcare--not just in lip service, but funneling money back into the Healthcare system.
The anti vaccine holdouts are impacting all of your health
Our system is reaching the point of critical failure. When healthcare workers negotiate (e.g. in the upcoming nursing contract negotiations), give them whatever they want or our system will collapse and more people will needlessly die. Our hearts can only handle putting so many people in body bags who would have lived if the system wasn't failing, and if there wasn't a deadly virus people refuse to be vaccinated against. I would want the public to know that the majority of BC nurses support vaccine mandates. I don't want to work alongside anti-science colleagues.
To listen to the health guidelines, be safe, don't get upset towards us with the government mandates, wear your masks.
Enforcing vaccine mandated is increasing nursing shortages
We know that most of you are on our side and that part is comforting.

But for those of you who are afraid of, or just against, the vaccine: stop saying that this only affects you. It does not. It affects everyone. If it only affected you, life would already have resumed as previous. Surgeries wouldn’t be cancelled, icus would not be overflowing. It is correct that the overwhelming majority of icu and sick patients are unvaccinated.

It. Is. Real.

Also.

I am tired of telling young parents that they may never see their children again for something that is so easily preventable.

When healers are tired, this is a very scary position for the healthcare system. I’m scared. It feels like everything is just about to fall apart.
That they can trust us. That the information we give is science based and true.
A hospital that is at 130% + capacity cannot give many people the care they need. An ER that has no beds to work with because it is full of admitted patients, including those with covid-19, where social distancing is not possible, is not able to provide safe and timely care. We need people to understand that on the Island the 4th wave has been the real wave, and we are drowning while we try and rescue everyone in the water around us. Not one ER nurse or doctor in the busy ER where I work was unvaccinated. We cried collective tears of joy when we had access to the vaccine. But we are now crying from distress when we see unvaccinated patients very sick and dying from Covid-19 as well as vaccinated patients with other health care needs that are not being met. I do not lay blame for the situation at the feet of the Ministry or politicians. This virus is the enemy against which we all fight, and we need them to be transparent again with the public about how dire things really are on the front lines so that responsible members of the public can also make educated choices about whether they go to a crowded ER because it seems faster to get seen than a walk in clinic or whether they should be avoiding that environment for non emergency issues. The government has expanded 811 to include physicians on call and should be reminding the public to use these resources appropriately as it is in the interest of public safety.
The hospitals are exhausted. We are burning out, and we have no relief. No vacation, no days off. This is not sustainable, and we need support
We cannot keep going like this. I have been a nurse for 16 years, and I have always loved my job, but no longer. All I feel is anxiety and stress. I feel the people I look after are being neglected. There is no easy fix, the issues are not going away.
The healthcare system in BC is in a crisis. It has been for a very long time, and COVID is finally breaking the barriers down. If we do not take action and demand our province to do better, your life is at risk. Your access to healthcare is already limited, and it will only continue to get worse.
Nurses are exhausted, beyond burned out, undercompensated for the professional, skilled, and stressful work they do. Sometimes this work is violent, and often it is all night long in impossible conditions. Many are leaving and not enough nurses being trained. The public needs to know how underfunded nursing is. This should be treated like the emergency it is, and universities and hospitals should be training nurses at much higher rates. Create some incentive to join the profession. Some people leave bedside nursing because you can get paid far better in IT or law enforcement. Most of all, the public needs to know that every day we remain understaffed is a safety hazard and only hurts patient care further. Mistakes are made, and people in pain wait 7-8 hours in ERs because there are simply no staff and no beds to see them now. When nurses split their time between 7-9 or over 15 patients if a nurse dare get a break, instead of 3-4 patients, care inevitably suffers. The cost is not just lonely patients, but ones with more bedsores, missed medications, late pain control, and worse- missing red flags of deterioration. Death in waitrooms. This is unacceptable, however nurses cannot safely speak out without staying anonymous so we need someone to speak for us (or to all speak together). We need help asap and no more broken promises.
That this is all so easily preventable and that they can't keep leaving us with this back breaking amount of work and expect things to run as status quo especially when things have been bad a lot longer than before covid.
That it is not normal to tell children their parents are dying. That if you are being asked to have a small Xmas gathering with windows open, it is not ok to go to game indoors. There is no room for you if you get sick. We are in an emergency code orange state that hasn’t been declared. You are being lied to daily. The press is just starting to shine a light.
That we are still trying to care, be happy and fulfilled
Covid 19 is now preventable thanks to vaccines and the strain on the healthcare system has come to a breaking point after years of understaffing. I want the public to know that 'short staffed' means that we can't necessarily respond to an infant's deteriorating arrhythmias fast enough because we're dealing with a seizing patient in another room and there aren't enough nurses on the floor. 'Short staffed' means errors are made because we are rushed and fatigued and can't think clearly when you work 12 hrs without a break. 'Short staffed' means there is no bed available, period.
we "nurses" cannot adequately care for you. Your care and the care of your loved ones is suffering. our workload is pushed beyond acceptable limits and with less and less resources/staff to do so. many of your individual needs will not be met. tests/procedures are delayed or cancelled on a daily basis due to staffing issues in all departments. when we are short 1-3 staff we cannot safely care for everyone. We don't feel good about the level of care we can provide on a daily basis
That elderly people are being abused
That they truly cannot understand what it is like to work in healthcare in a pandemic. Get vaccinated !
Please vaccinate. The nursing shortage is real! Nurses are burning out!
The system needs to retain the experience of our nurses that have been working many years. We need to start to also replace the ones lost. Mentorship is so very important as each situation is as unique as or patients.
Covid is real
We are trying so hard. Like so hard and we can’t tell you what we see at work. There is so much private suffering among staff. Burnout is real.
Please get vaccinated asap. It’s safe.
And wear your damn mask over your mouth and nose. Ffs.
Nurses are tired
Our working conditions are horrible, we are working in unsafe conditions and people are going to die due to unsafe patio to nurse ratios and mistakes being made
We aren’t trying to trick you or lead you astray.

If anyone wants the pandemic to be over, it’s healthcare workers.
We are SO TIRED.

The abuse is overwhelming. It was bad before but it’s so much worse now.

Hospitalizations are increasing. There’s no capacity.
They also aren’t cancelling surgeries anymore. So if you’re coming to the emergency room and you need to be admitted, expect to wait on an uncomfortable stretcher in the ER for 2-3 days.

We are so short staffed that it is so unsafe for anyone to come in and seek help. Know that if you’re coming in for a real emergency - life or death - there will likely be 50% of the normal amount of staff needed to work on you. We will fight with everything we have, but if you’re the one who’s been hanging out waiting for hours - you will likely be neglected.

People have started to die in waiting rooms from neglect because there is NO staff to monitor every one.
Our problems predated the pandemic. Covid showed the cracks created by years of under funding mismanagement.
We are trying. And we care very much. But we’re tired. We’re exhausted. We’re totally burnt out. Nonetheless, we’ll keeping doing our best to take care of each and every person as best we can.
to the antivaxxers who claim freedom of choice. So you choose not to be vaccinated and to expose everybody to the virus and as a HCW I don't have any choice but to treat you..
Is that fair???
Health care is broken. All the workers left standing are just floundering around in the debris trying to provide first aid.
Please do not take our healthcare system for granted. It is in serious trouble and needs urgent action. And please also understand that we are continuously working short staffed and we are exhausted. Please be patient and kind to us.
We've lost good nurses to the vaccine mandate. Without these nurses we often workshort at a risk to resident safety.
Covid has only highlighted issues we are experiencing in our province. Our hospitals have outgrown what our communities need. Communities like Chilliwack have only grown yet the hospital and it's capacity has stayed the same. There is a lack of understanding that only so many people can fit in the emergency department and only so many patients a nurse can care for and a doctor can see. The lack of funding provided to this site is minimal at best. No access to so many services where patients then need to be transferred out. For example, the only place for a patient who is having an acute heart attack (STEMI) is Royal Columbian for Fraser Health, a nurse must take the patient. One other example is, the only place for a pediatric patient requiring intensive care is BC Children's; a team will come from BC Children's or a nurse and/or a respiratory therapist must take the child. The site itself has seen some of the highest rates of emergency room visits for what is considered a community site. Many factors take part it this, lack of primary care doctors, lack of walk in clinics with evening and weekend hours, lack of knowledge from the public on basic health care needs and/or their chronic conditions, increase population, increase mental health and addictions disorder.
For the public please understand we want to help but we can only do so much with what we have. Please advocate for your community, speak to your MLA, ask questions about your health to your care provider and have empathy, patience and respect for those who are trying to what they can in the emergency department.
Health care system in bc isn’t that good
This is no joke, you can get very sick and even die. Covid doesn’t differentiate between young or old, healthy or not
That nurses are being treated with disrespect and disregard. We are humans, not machines.
Covid is real get vaccinated protect yourselves and others.
How much nurses and health care staff have sacrificed
They need to support nurses, we need more nurses, and we need better working conditions and nurse/patient ratios.
We are not the enemy
Have patience with us yelling at healthcare workers will not help. We work tirelessly around the clock and some times we don’t have time to take breaks.
Medical freedom is crucial to Health Care in any country of the world
Health care system is failing
Our health care system is falling apart. We don’t have adequate staff or adequate room for people in acute care. People are coming in more acute and we can’t keep up with the acuity of patients in the hospital on regular wards.
That working in healthcare now sucks and the government does not value us at all
Nurses have left the building- we are never coming back . There is no shortage , we are just not going to work in hospitals.
You have the health care system your government wants you to have . No nurses , no doctors, no staff . Lots of management though - so call them and let them actually do some real work .
Hospitals are constantly over 100% capacity while we are incredibly short staffed. Please take care of yourself and if you find yourself in the hospital, please be kind to the staff caring for you.
The mass exodus of nurses either because of early retirements or nurses leaving the profession due to working conditions has just begun. It will get worse before it gets better.
That we are gagged! We literally would be fired if we told you all what went on behind closed doors.
That the shortage of nurses can’t go on for much longer as the system is at a brink of collapse. Burnout is real, bullying is real and and nothing is being done. No one is talking about the emotional trauma and burnout we’ve all gone through in this pandemic.
Unvaccinated healthcare workers are well educated in PPE and are safe to provide the care you need.
That Home Support staff has barely been acknowledged throughout this pandemic. We are critically short staffed so therefore we overwork the CHWs that we do have. Our Case Managers have worked from home for approximately 15 months and yet we go to work daily in offices that are barely big enough and we have no barriers. For this the ones who work from home receive the $4/hr premium. We’ve been denied! The information we receive from IH is extremely difficult to navigate when you have very little time due to staffing levels. It is generally a multitude of links to hunt and peck through to find the information that pertains to our services. Very poor guidelines and leadership!
I am ready to be selfish
This pandemic has demonstrated the importance of recognizing and respecting science and professional opinions to keep us safe. Listen to the experts around you.
I worry more about what humans are doing to each other in society than ANY illness.
It's impossible to give your loved ones the care they deserve in these conditions, and I hate that
There is real fear in this pandemic
Covid has isolated patients and staff from what Healthcare used to be
The pandemic is only one symptom of an unhealthy system
DO NOT get sick or injured that requires a hospital stay.
Nurses, as a whole, are treated as disposable. Employers find a way to cut corners at the expense of nurses. They do not encourage a healthy work-life balance, that they promote to the public, but are quick to reprimand nurses for not staying overtime. We have experienced violence and aggression in our line of work and covid only intensified that. Employers don't care if we get injured. Instead of providing support for us, they choose to reprimand us when we need a mental health day off. We are disposable in their eyes.
I wish people could come shadow what is happening in ICU and ER departments around Canada. The pain, suffering, and sacrifice taking place daily, worsened by the public's denial of COVID or refusal to get vaccinated and wear a mask.
They are not getting good care. We are rushing through so many surgeries, at unsafe levels, with inadequate numbers of staff. It’s not safe. I’ve seen increasing numbers of mistakes happen, and patients getting inadequate care, injuries, problems being ignored, because staff are rushing patients through the system. It’s harming patients.
We are so exhausted from working severely short staffed daily, cannot provide type of care they are demanding
That we are working hard and with less staff than before. We are tired and frustrated too
We need more staff. Nurses are burning out.
The public especially those who are anti-vaxx or have vaccine hesitancy have no idea what is going on in the hospital. The selfishness is beyond comprehension. The arguments against the vaccine have no evidence to uphold those beliefs. Once your decision starts impacting those around you, it is your obligation to protect those around you.
Patients are not receiving consistently safe care due to staff shortages across nursing, lab techs, resp techs, housekeeping staff...all human resources are thin in acute care, and I hear community isn't much better, just less acute.
Under appreciation of nurses. Public has not idea the hard work that nurses do for the complete lack of appreciation.
How nurses mental health has been affected and frustration around false information
Please be patient with us. We are tired. Please don't take out your frustrations with the system on health care workers. We just work here.
Go get vaccinated so the hospital will get
Less COVID patients so more beds would be available for the non COVID patients. The public don’t realize what we do for our sick patient!
That it is an individuals choice as to whether or not they want to get vaccinated. Nothing should ever be forced on you nor should they take away our freedom to choose for ourselves!
How dangerous a 7-8:1 nurse ratio is in acute care. This is our current situation and will continue to be our future situation unless changes are made. That nurses cannot speak out publicly or we get fired.
That if they, or someone they love, gets sick - we as health care workers are doing our best in a very broken health care system.
Use emergency as a last resort.
We were totally not prepared. We have no way to isolate Covid. You are not safe in a hospital. If you do not want to be part of the solution and get your vaccine do not come to the hospital.
We wait in line just like you do, we are without family doctors just like you are, we are not special.
Don’t pressure loved ones into making choices they may/will regret. Don’t be harsh to people out in the communities, grocery stores, parks, etc. Do unto others as you’d want them to act towards you. Everyone walks a different path in life and should not be getting judged for a choice they have human rights go make.
Covid is real. The science is real. It’s tangible. Healthcare workers came into this career to help people, and that’s what we are trying so valiantly to do.
If you choose not to be vaccinated - don’t come to ER when you get sick and want us to save you!!! You made a choice. Live with it.
Please do what you can to stay healthy. It’s likely that when you get sick, there won’t be any hospital staff left to help you
Our healthcare workers are trained to know how to help steer us safely through the pandemic. But do not forget they are also human and you will not have a world class healthcare system without valuing their knowledge and their humanity.
The mandates being put in place that are terminating over 3,000 health care workers are not the answer. Most all departments are already critically short nurses. The conversation is not whether you want a vaccinated or unvaccinated nurse, it is whether you want A nurse or NO nurse.
For example, I work in a level 1 trauma centre ER in the lower mainland. About a month ago, I was working a day shift. The oncoming night shift was going to be 7 nurses short. There were already a number of critically ill patients in the department and a critical trauma patient was incoming with paramedics. The paramedics were unable to obtain a blood pressure on this patient - exhibiting how close to dying they were. I offered to extend my already 12 hour shift for another hour to assist in the resuscitation of this patient. This patient required a massive transfusion of blood products, a chest tube to be inserted, they needed to be intubated and put on a ventilator and then run STAT to the operating room because the extent of their injuries was so extensive. I am explaining the complexity of this patient to you and the amount of work that the resuscitation team needed to do to highlight the need for nursing staff. Due to the amount of staffing shortages, had I not offered to extend my already exhausting day, this patient WOULD NOT HAVE HAD A NURSE to care for them. Their outcome would have likely been much worse than what it was.

What happens when its YOU or YOUR FAMILY and there are no nurses to take care of you while you have a heart attack or breathing difficulty? What about your family member that gets in a life threatening car or workplace accident and there are no nurses to stabilize them and get them to the operating room? What happens when your child sits in the ER for hours with a broken arm and develops long term nerve damage because there were no nurses to see them or help the physician reduce the arm and put it in a cast? What then? BC NEEDS nurses and the nurses that are willing to work are being turned away.
Nurses are not ok. We need help
The hospitals are NOT OK. The public has been misinformed and the message has been misrepresented during this entire pandemic. Even those of us working in acute care centres are kept completely in the dark regarding cases in hospital and in-hospital outbreaks, nevermind community numbers and outbreaks. Contact tracing is almost non-existent within our hospital. We continue to bring 'healthy' stable elective patients into a dangerous healthcare environment ('because the people want it') without informing the public what the risk of catching COVID is INSIDE our institution.
Get vaccinated
Vaccines are probably safe and DEFINITELY safer than getting the virus, so it should be a no-brainer. Masks probably work and I'm probably sicker of them than you. But they do protect us and others.
Primary care is broken in this province. ER is on the verge of collapse. Many ERPs have specialized resuscitative/critical care training but absolutely NO primary care education. We need better primary care structure, funding and family health teams. The BC Government has, and continues to fail its population when it comes to primary care and preventative medicine. ERs are trying to adapt to the volumes, but are ill prepared, in many ways to do so. We can't be everything to everyone.
Early and mid course Covid Rx like asthma exacerbation works well
This is not about a virus
I served all my patients regardless of their choices. I’ve suffered work related PTSD, fought for good seniors care. But none of that matters only my vax status. 25 years RN
It's not ok in our hospitals, we are burning from the inside out
We are doing our best with the little support that we have.
Natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity. Children should not get jabs! Early treatments are cheap and effective!
Although vaccine protects against severe disease, it does not offer protection against infection and transmission to others therefore it shouldn’t be mandated! Our already strained Healthcare system has lost numerous great people because of this, totally unnecessarily. The vaccine also has serious side effects that Dr. Henry is acknowledging.
That there’s another side of the story other than what they are seeing on their TV.
There's no pandemic. People willingly/blindly took controversial and synthetic dna altering shots.
Wake up and see covid is real but not about being vaccinated or not u can still get covid
Now is the time to wake up and stop your freedom from being eroded, you are losing it bit by bit.
The rules for Covid have never made sense.
Natural immunity always prevails, but yet it is not even a blip on the screen when it comes to Covid. Every one who rushed out to get vaccinated is part of a large experiment, as the vaccinations were still
In an experimental phase.
I have my vaccinations, but this one on every level seemed wrong. There were too many unanswered questions. People that questioned the narrative got gag orders. We are trained to think outside the box and critically when things do not make sense and now are getting punished for it.
Mandating an experiment on people, where does that sit ethically? Coercing people to lose their livelihood or get the vaccine, how ethical is that?
Right now as I write this Nov of 2021, 1.6% of people with covid have died. 3.6% of all tests in Canada were positive for covid. How does this justify job loss and loss of freedoms? Hospital over capacity is just a convenient excuse because they are more often then not over capacity even prior to Covid. Now with the staffing shortage that has been getting worse over the last 10yrs has come to a head and there is a greater lack of long term care workers, community support workers and acute hospital staff. I have been in healthcare 17yrs and the staffing crisis is not news, it’s been the reality for years.
That ICU capacity does not actually surge, it just gets diluted down and standards are lowered. This means that nobody is getting actual ICU care anymore.
That COVID patients are being prioritized over EVERYBODY else right now, and that is a CHOICE made by the government/health authorities. Surgeries are being cancelled, testing delayed and access to care denied because already limited critical care capacity is now overwhelmed by people sick with a preventable illness who made the choice to not get vaccinated. It would be like closing emergency departments and sending all their staff out into the community to prevent people from dying of overdoses.
I am still a hero not zero even though they treated us like a dirty tissue
I was hero last year and now I am zero
The truth, as I am a 22 year employed person with IH, I know the good I do, I know how I've impacted so many lives of people and their families who have loved ones lost and living to and with Cancer. I have gone above and beyond what is expected of me and the rolls required in my position. I can say with great pride that anyone would want to be cared for by me.
I am sick of hearing we Healthcare workers should be more responsible and get Vaccinated.
We worked through it, NOONE CARED, WE HAD NEXT TO NO SUPPLIES...NOONE CARED, people came in with Covid, they didn't leave with it!
Healthcare workers are at risk EVERYDAY WITH MANY THINGS.....NOONE CARES, THE STAFFING SHORTAGE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN ISSUE
THE MANDATES MAKE IT WORSE, this to me is a master plan.....closing sites??? Are you kidding me while firing great people?
Stop using your Vax Passports and start using your brains. These mandates and passports are dividing our communities and our province.
That the government should always be held accountable and should never breeze over or out right dodge facts, even in the event of a crisis. (There has been treatment for covid in many many other parts of the world for e.g but when you walk into a Canadian Hospital the doctors will admantly deny treatment is an option). See the Maui health website as one small example. And no, staffing and logistics is NOT an issue as we have seen with the great response from all sorts of staff to aid in the vaccination efforts.
That nurses are completely exhausted and to please have a little patience.
Medical professionals are burnt out. Get immunized.
To be patient and gentile with the health care teams. I love my job and I’m trying my best
Our gvt doesn’t really care about people’s health and well-being. They believe all HCWs are expandable.
We are only human, with families and loved ones and our own mental health issues that need to come before work. We are not robots or bottomless pits of nursing care. The well is running dry.
Vaccines work. Nurses care. We would never knowingly hurt anyone- especially not the communities we are committed to serving.
That the BCNU no longer speaks for the majority of its members and has for a very long time not been effective at bargaining fairly for nurses.

I have to make decisions on a daily basis that effect people’s health. Every level of healthcare is being impacted by short staffing and unrealistic expectations of what we can do with the limited resources we have.

I am overworked every day and I want to be able to provide the highest standard of care but struggle to do this most days because of the workload. I will continue to provide the best care I can but know that I am looking for ways to get out of front line healthcare. Please listen to healthcare workers and hold your government officials accountable for choices they make that impact retention and recruitment of staff and safe working conditions.
We are also people who get tired, burned out and have feelings.
Frontline staff our doing their best with what we have tonwork with
We are tired, more than they could ever imagine.
That our employer refuses to provide healthcare workers with appropriate PPE. And that we cannot even bring our own superior PPE to use while working. Also, that our healthcare system will absolutely be broken beyond repair as we deal with all the long-covid sequelae, even if we eradicated SARS-Cov2 this minute.
Do not become a nurse, you are not safe, you are overworked and you are not listened to
It is so much worse than you think it could be. Everyday I go to work is a nightmare. The government is trying to protect you from the truth. Hospitals are overun and there is no end in site. Too many patients not enough Healthcare workers.
Covid-19 is real. Get vaccinated. Wear a respirator, social distance, and wash hands often.
Healthcare is a right and privilege, please don’t abuse it
The Government and the public health are the enemies of health care and should not be trusted.The health care workers who refuse the shot are the real heroes for standing up for freedom to choose and don't deserve to be terminated.
I am not a leaper. I was born to be a Social
Worker and change the world. I save lives. Don’t take that away because you’re afraid of misinformed.
Covid has the ability to change your quality of life forever , vaccination is key.
The medical system needs to be revamped. There is another hospital in our health authority that has 3x as many nurses as ours does, and we see as many patients as they do…
We are exhausted! Help us fight the battle by getting vaccinated
we need your help
The the government and medical profession is lying to the public
There is early treatment you can do at home to prevent even having to go to the hospital. These early treatments can help you as you work through covid and beat it!!
Misinformation, Censorship, Loss of Healthy Debate
The hospital is absolutely falling apart.
We have patient volume well beyond capacity at levels never seen before. We have so much staff burnout, leaves and sick calls that we are not able to replace. We are often working shortstaffed, with no reinforcements. Sometimes even working with only half the workers on a given day.
On the front lines, it appears the government and the health authority are doing nothing to help our situation. In fact, the government is actually making the situation worse by enforcing regulations like the vaccine mandate, which resulted in us losing valuable Healthcare staff that we couldn't afford to lose in the first place.
Try to critically think about the current situation we are in. Do your own evidence based research and refrain from listening to mainstream media on a daily basis. Question the things that are happening all over the world right now. Do not let fear disrupt your judgement. Listen to those who are being wrongfully terminated especially those with years of practice in our healthcare profession. This vaccine mandate is completely going against medical ethics.
That the health care system is very broken and we are in danger
That they are being lied to every day. They need to wake up and take responsibility for allowing this to happen.
Hospital census are the same as before pandemic. 100%+ ALWAYS. Short staffed before pandemic, worse after unpaid LOA/ termination of health care . Minimal covid in hospital. Very ill patients in general.
The department has binders of thousands of orders for ultrasounds dating back a few years that are not being done because the department is understaffed. The department currently has 4 unfilled positions. Having worked in Alberta to come here and see how the healthcare system is already massively failing the public, it is astonishing and tremendously sad to think that the government would allow the system to fail even more. Firing healthcare workers is going to increase imaging wait times and delay patients diagnosis further. We live in Canada. This is absolutely unacceptable and we the public should not be okay with this. Something needs to change, and this is not the direction things should be heading.
How covid has changed us.
That the mainstream media and govt officials are lying to the public
That hospital capacity is desperately low to start with, and that Covid has just turned a day to day mess into an absolutely disaster in terms of trying to look after emergency patients. When the hospital is full, all of the overflow patients end up in the ER (because that’s where sick patients start). It is impossible for an ER to function efficiently as an ER when it is full of yesterday’s admitted patients (patients that should have been transferred to inpatient wards but weren’t because they were full). This is the primary cause for ER waits and preventable bad outcomes in the ER. Doctors and nurses can’t provide the best care to patients with life threatening emergencies when the bulk of the ER is full of patients from yesterday and the day before. Covid has only made this worse.
I want the public to know that your actions have consequences. If you chose to not be vaccinated that if/when you get sick you are expecting the health care system to bear the consequences of your actions. ...and we will. Nurses, doctors, RT's will be there and help you. But as our healthcare workers burn out and leave the profession, there may be no one there to help you when you get cancer, or if your child needs surgery, or if your dad needs a procedure after a heart attack.

What changes would you like to see in B.C.’s pandemic response?

Have better workplace environments to begin with, so that a pandemic doesn’t collapse the system.
Consistency, transparency, same expectations placed on visitors as Healthcare workers. Should be vaccinated if coming in as a visitor.
More support for health care workers on the front lines, better access to PPE, Mental health support and incentivizing staying in health care for the already burnt out staff.
Listen to your frontline, not the managers and directors. They are what matters. Support them, see them. Not the ones managers hand pick that won’t give you the true experience, dig deep.
Earlier enforcement with provincial health guidelines and stronger enforcement and consequences with areas not abiding to guidelines in place
A clearer picture of what’s going on inside hospital doors
Vaccine mandates are causing mass division and chaos. A horrible initiative that won’t help anything.
Early treatment is needed. Don’t wait until people are in hospital, provide early treatment options to everyone that tests positive. That would massively relieve the strain on the healthcare system.
More urgent cares, doctors in primary care need to start assessing patients in person. Diagnosis are getting missed
Nurses deserve a higher wage after this and some serious vacation hours
More transparency from the BC government re: where and who is getting sick.
Speak to the up to date data. Acknowledging that proper masks and ventilation/filters are needed in hospitals. Many hospitals are in need of infrastructure upgrades for airborne transmission
Change nursing education to a trade style. Make it easier for LPNs with experience to upgrade to RN certification. Decrease patient loads so we can properly care for our patients and so when we are short staffed it doesn’t put our staffing at unsafe levels for both patients and staff.
Revamp/change of broken systems in healthcare and society as a whole
Funding for more Doctors, nurses, care staff, and the healthcare system.
I would like doctors to get back to their offices and see patients. I would like to see increased seats at university for doctors, increased fellowships of specialists, increased research for post viral syndrome. Not just coivd virus - but post viral. I would like to see our health care system restructured so into a system like Australia where there is public and private. What we have now is not working.
Straight across the board everyone needs to be vaccinated. You can’t have a two level system . Teachers need to be vaccinated too. What are you telling the public. It’s ok not to be vaccinated. It’s bullshit!
Tougher restrictions
Stricter vaccination mandates and restrictions for unvaccinated people
Hiring of more nurses. Increasing nursing wage.
None. BC has been an example to the country, and Ontario and Quebec have recently let us down by not mandating vaccines for health care workers. We too deserve safe workplaces, and our patients deserve better. Alberta has been rogue since the beginning, such a disappointment.
There are too many inequities in vaccinations. Prioritize all HCWs (nurses, doctors, medical students, residents, porters, lab etc.)for all stages of vaccination, including boosters. Supply is no longer an issue.

Mandates work. Keep them.

Test air quality and upgrade ventilation in all areas of hospital.

Make N95s readily available and a choice for all hospital HCWs.

Expand mandates to school staff, teachers and prioritize teachers for all stages of vaccinations.
Stricter measures
N95 masks for all covid pts/PUI. Messaging on proper masks, air purification. Bans on indoor large events. Vaccine mandatory to enter any store.
1. Self administered rapid tests for anyone who wants them. As a lab worker, I am insulted every time I hear Dr. Henry patronize the people of BC by saying they are too complicated to administer or you need staff to use them.
2. Open data! It is astonishing and embarrassing to see the level of incompetence with data collection and transparency. Why after 2 years do we not have more competence with IT??
3. Airborne precautions for everything. Including staff lunch rooms. HEPA filters. Want to wear an n95 today instead of a surgical procedure mask? Go for it!
4. Stop diminishing deaths by saying they had pre-existing conditions. It is ignorant, uncaring, and leads the healthy privileged vaccine hesitant to think they are immune and vaccine not required.
5. Media briefings in person with unlimited questions. So tired of circuitous non-answers.
6. TELL the public the situation in their area. Is ICU full? Are there 9 people in a 6 bed ICU? With 50% staff? TELL the community.
7. Physically in person ASK each employee the screening questions. So many people just lie on the forms filled out daily. So many coworkers come to work sick. Nothing happens.
8. Recommend the public wear n95s in public indoor spaces and confined or crowded outdoor spaces.
9. As a healthcare worker, I would appreciate knowing about EVERY CASE of covid at my children's schools. Again, patronizing that the PHO feels we don't need to know.
More transparent data sharing. Mitigation measures that are explained clearly. Acknowledgment of mistakes made.
Monetary raise and more appreciation for what health care does
Emphasis on returning services to clients and recruitment and retention of staff at all levels. Respect for the work that staff do and proper compensation.
More accountability, staffing solutions, wage increase,lessen our taxes
Staffing increases, increased education, a government response that is clear and set rather then soft and inconsistent. Example: lockdowns but still allowing global travel without vaccine mandates.
Increase the amount of staff working. Hire more. Pay the nurses more.
Wide availability of N95s and free rapid antigen tests. Also that it is ok for PH to say that they’ve made mistakes and to update their position when new information becomes available - that’s science.
More staff snd support
More funding for building capacity within our healthcare system in the future.
Stop mandating vaccines.
No Vax Mandates. Provide testing and PPE alternatives for those unable to get vaxxed. Prevent burnout and collapse of the health care system.
Honesty with numbers, transparency of game plan, role modelling of appropriate behaviours to reduce transmission by public health leaders, more restrictions to reduce transmission, access to rapid testing, vaccine mandates for teachers.
1) Less reactive and more proactive.
2) Honest and transparent disclosure. Medical staff continuously told that PH does not want to scare the public but asked to be complicit in deceit - not publishing COVID hospitalizations (only those still infective), covid positive movement policies at hospital allowing patients with mental health and drug addiction and active covid to move freely in hospitals (even elevators) without others visiting hospital being aware of this policy, downtown eastside outbreaks not disclosed
3) Lack of acknowledgment of airborne spread of covid - let’s use this info to improve ventilation (in hospitals, schools, workplaces, etc)
4) Separation of public health from politics - health advice should be separate from economic plan…
Honest, clear, and uniform communication regarding risk and benefit analysis, treatment strategies, and mortality rates.
I don’t know how you can educate people when you’re with misinformation giants like Facebook.
Wiped out and justice and truths brought to light
Rapid testing in all high risk areas. Real data tracking, no more cherry picking!
More healthcare workers.
Find a treatment and treat it instead of vaccination and boosters
Better public health system, more family health practioners, more accessible health care in the community
Ventilation. Slower pace of reopening. Rapid testing
I want the BC NDP and PH leaders to come clean about the issues around access to surgery. Patients are frustrated and have no idea - they hear an unrealistic rosy view from pressers and it’s all lies and omissions. The NDP has abandoned health care workers and worse blames us for the shortage by harping on the “unvaccinated” workers leading to closures. This isn’t true in VCH.

The other thing I wish is that they would focus on getting vaccination to marginalized populations and communities. They frame vaccination as a personal choice but for the patients I see in the ICU here, they are indigenous or experiencing homelessness and unvaccinated because of colonialism, medical system distrust, or lack of access. What are we doing for the vulnerable? Because it looks like we aren’t doing anything. I want a plan from PH to address this.
When B.C separated patients and families in care facilities it did more harm than good and B.C needs to see the importance of family connections and in person visits as a strong mental health influence and the mind is often more powerful than the body, when they took away visiting they took away some people's will to live. Which is worse risking covid and passing happy or staying safe from covid but passing alone and feeling abandoned. Don't forget those who suffer from dementia and other similar conditions don't understand why their loved one stopped coming to visit but they know how it feels to be alone, and to some that's worse than dying.
Value your nurses! Show that you value them in concrete ways, not banging pots & empty thank you s. Make health authorities provide a healthy workplace, which means allow time off as needed and decent workload. Take violence in healthcare seriously and get the message out that it is unacceptable by actions, not words.
7/7 publication of all numbers (yes Sat and Sundays)
- new COVID admissions, + tests, all hospitalizations 2’ary to COVID (still pending from PHO)
- number of active school outbreaks and closures with historic tracking graphs
- number of active LTC outbreaks and closures with historic tracking graphs
- number of active provincial testing and vaccination centres with daily tallies
- both number of eligible and % of total population vaccinated
- number of contact tracers and total number of contacts notified directly

Cause of all deaths posted within 2 weeks (and was COVID involved in any way) currently too many deaths can be attributed to “underlying condition” as primary cause of death.
Boosters for high risk groups sequentially rolled out at 4 months post second shot
Strengthen and enforce mask mandates to all > age 2 at all times when indoor public spaces, businesses, and places of worship
Focus on ventilation and HEPA filtration of schools, hospitals, and businesses with Gov’t incentives
Release rapid tests with FAQ on how and when to use
Public education campaign on wearing clean masks with appropriate level of protection for scenario
Push to give boosters to highest risk groups more than two weeks before winter holidays
Enforce mandates on checking vaccine status - spot checks and business consequences if not compliant
Every Gov’t, Health Authority, and public sector employee needs a visible name, phone number, and email available to the public.

Discourage celebrity status and title of BC’s Top Doctor unless this is a democratically elected position. NB Horgan appointing and then honouring anyone with Order of BC is a conflict of interest.

Media needs to be held accountable to ask unbiased questions of public officials
No vaccine mandate
Occupancy limits restored. Covid vaccination required for indoor seating in coffee shops/fast food establishments etc. Mandatory vaccination of teachers and school support staff who work with some of the most vulnerable population - unvaccinated children under 12 years of age.
No mandates
PH being more transparent.
clearer and more consistent direction
They need to provide the real numbers of peoples infected in hospital (active infection and “recovered”). The public deserves to understand how scarce resources (not just beds, but nurses to man said beds) can mean the difference between life and death. BC needs to look for a way to balance health care needs of public (ie. surgeries) and giving front line staff time to rest/recoup/recover from the horrendous conditions we have been forced to work under.
A recognition that our Healthcare system was crippled BEFORE the pandemic and the pandemic has only exacerbated it. Vaccines are great, but better funding to hospitals and health care front line workers (not managers are ceos) is the only solution
No covid tests for fully vaccinated people to travel or it should be free..
Waive tuition for nurses, doctors, and RTs. Forgive student loans for BC residents who have completed their programs and are working on the frontline.
Many. Start with respecting people. Offer vaccines but also prehospital care.
We don’t want thank you cards and emails, we want actual support, safe working conditions, and sick days. This goes via support for the nurses, protecting us from abuse, adequate ppe including n95, and strong advocacy for the public to follow the vaccine mandate.

In our rare time off we would love to be able to enjoy safer social gatherings and sports, including skiing/winter sports, and we would love to see the vaccine mandate expanded to anything enclosed including gondolas.

Acknowledge airborne transmission.

Give adequate support and ppe to the healthcare workers.

Stay firm on vaccine mandate and expand if possible.
More nursing resources, pandemic planning as part of regular public health programming
Tell the truth. Always. Opacity in government leads to higher mortality and morbidity. The current government has done a lot of good for health care. All parties need to work together to depoliticize health care delivery and instead see this pandemic as an opportunity to ensure that health care continues to be a priority. Which hospitals are built where should be based on objective need, not used as poker chips in a political game. This is the only way we will be ready for the next pandemic, not to mention looking after Canada's aging demographic.
I would like to see education on how the vaccines work, how the immune system works. I want to see education to help people understand why the mandates have been made. Dr google is giving too much misinformation and we as healthcare need to fill these gaps.
Huge wage increase is needed to make Healthcare jobs appealing. Investments in making more spaces in programs to train Healthcare staff. Reduce licensing fees. Remove the vaccine mandate. Everyone who is willing has it, and we cannot afford to loose even one nurse or HCA.
Consistency, transparency.
Valuing nurses and other healthcare workers by allowing increased vacation or mental health days, paying them better, ensuring quality benefits, including better psychotherapy benefits. The last 2 years have been traumatic, burnout sky high, and our psych coverage is limited.

Maintain masks in indoor spaces
Continue to promote vaccine and general science education
Countering misinformation in media better
If they are going to mandate vaccines in our workforce than they need to mandate them in many sectors because we aren't the only high risk population
Circuit breaker, it’s airborne-admit it. Stop pretending like surgical masks are adequate.
Not mandating vaccines…for anyone
I don't even know. Maybe actual lockdowns like they had in Quebec and Ontario would make people realize that it's been pretty cushy here in BC.
incentives to work in hospital. how are travel nurses being paid so much more to come to BC for a short time. why does BC not value the nurses we already have enough to pay them respectfully. focus should be on retaining staff
An immediate end to mandates and pcr
I am uncertain. I think Bc has done a fairly good job with the evolving science, and nature of this virus. Maybe just a little more consistent communication across the board that the general public understands
Mandatory in all service sectors, schools,universities
Staffing increases.
All health authorities in BC respond together- not different policies/procedures for different health authorities. Vaccine passport for visitors enforced. Management/directors actually come to unit and check in with staff . Better communication with infection control right from the start. Public health and occupational health on same page in terms of staff exposures.
Recommend better masks- I only wear kn95- except when I am at work.
Have worksafebc mandate Covid vaccination for all workers, including school districts
Better ventilation standards and monitoring- corsi cubes are cheap!!
Increase rapid testing in areas with >5% test positivity; better yet, provide for free to anyone who wants one.
Better access to testing in the North. Frankly it’s embarrassing- have family members who waited 5+days for tests or results, both of which came back positive. Know ppl who aren’t bothering to get tested because of real/perceived barriers.
Sick time for parents who have sick kids so they don’t send them to school.
Better support for family physicians
Mandatory vaccinations, close the boarders, transparency in schools for covid
Everyone must be vaccinated to be in public areas
At this point it feels like the damage has been done.

In my opinion, we opened everything up way too soon at the beginning.
Funding, firing management at any facility with above average attrition.
More access to rapid testing.
mandate vaccine passport for all the ski hills who have gondolas to access the runs: riding in a packed gondola windows closed and no ventilation for 20-30 min with strangers wearing wet face is the perfect scenario for virus transmission...
More rapid responses. Clearer guidelines with actual enforcement.
Offering better incentives/work environment to retain the staff that are still working. This will also help attract more healthcare providers and hopefully keep them in the field. More respect when it comes to verbal and physical abuse in the healthcare system. We shouldn’t have to tolerate it.
More consideration of the potential airborne transmission
Fund community sites. Have access to more services at community sites.
No masks / normal openings less restrictions
Essential workers being financially compensated for putting ourself at risk everyday.
More funding for nursing care.
Consistency and transparency. Be consistent with the rules. If staff can’t work without the vaccine visitors should not be allowed at the hospitals without a vaccine with no exceptions. The current exceptions are ridiculous. It’s harder to get into a restaurant than it is to get into a hospital to visit with vulnerable people.

Be honest about the numbers of cases. Say how many are in hospital. That’s not giving out confidential information. The public won’t understand how serious it really is if we aren’t transparent.
Improved staffing, wages, respect
More nurse support. Family doctors, walk in clinics have to step up. So many patients telling me their doctors aren't seeing patients.
Scientific Method (applying rigorous skepticism)
We need extra help and funding. Our labs are going unnoticed never acknowledged. Without us doctors will be guessing about diagnosing. So we need major help by govt. fund the lab.
FIRST Do No Harm
Get doctors seeing patients in person again to decrease strain on emergency wards. Preventative treatment and other adjunctive therapies that are scientifically proven to be beneficial for symptom management should be encouraged.
Nurses and other health care workers need a huge wage increase. RCMP got $20k annual salary increase and nurses want a realistic wage increase to keep up with inflation and no just the 2% per year. Nurses are going to the states or leaving their profession.
Have nurse management work like the rest of the team that they keep telling us we all are. Safe PPE
More space created for covid patients and more staff in all positions in the hospital.
Clearer communication of the amount of hospitalized patients who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Also, continuation of regulations to mitigate spread of virus, keeping crowds down when necessary.
PROACTIVE health care! Testing for exposures regardless of symptoms, FASTER response from contact tracers. I was notified of a work related exposure NOT by my employer, but by the coworker who exposed me IN OUR STAFFROOM!
And if Bonny Henry is going to cross the line of human rights by making a mandate that all healthcare workers be vaccinated, then make it mandatory for ALL to be vaccinated!!!! This whole thing is an ethical dilemma, if you’re going to cross that line, cross it all the way. Everyone vaccinated and get it over with.
More staffing, not firing unvaccinated staff when levels have already been critically low for years. More testing for all staff entering hospital due to increase in covid outbreaks due to vaccinations not stopping transmissions of covid-19
No mandates
Information 7 days a week! Full breakdown on location not just South , Central and North breakdown- I’m not asking for names and addresses but what we hear in our community is that no one knows it’s here! Go back to enforcing simple things like buggy and sanitizing please u
Increased wages, hire more staffing
Temporary increase in baseline staffing ratio's to offset the increase in work associated with managing appropriate precautions. Increased sick days or sick days specific to time off while awaiting negative covid tests.
Complete transparency. If people are not given the WHOLE truth about rationale for actions, the people will find their own answers. People are angry and the lack of vaccine uptake is sheer defiance. If we’re all wearing masks in public spaces, why can’t unvaccinated staff come to work? Perhaps it’s to keep those individuals off of payroll (sick benefits) and save money? We know it’s about money. If we didn’t have socialized medicine, I believe this vaccine would be voluntary. THIS is why we are angry and exhausted.
Staffing levels and overcapacity levels addressed and dealt with
More truth relayed to media
Realization this no hoax! Vaccinate
Nurses need to be paid more which may help with recruitment and retention because nurses are leaving Healthcare and not coming back. Nurses would work if they were better supported, meaning adequately staffed at all times.
Have PPE on hand, increase number of qualified professionals...non-management
Remove and replace Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix. DBH is out of date and not current with science and epidemiology findings. It is not just the unvaccinated that are clogging the system but the lack of public health policies and directives that are easy and available.
Better organization to lead health care teams.
Acknowledgement that covid is airborne, proper PPE precautions and air ventilation, refusal of care for those who refuse to get vaccinated and subsequently get covid, lockdowns and a goal of covid zero, safe reopening based on science not the economy. Bonnie Henry, Adrian Dix, and John Horgan fired.
Better compensation for nurses
Consistency. And why is law enforcement, (VPD) not mandating vaccines??
Extra money for working our butts off
Better pay for those working in healthcare and better and safer staffing numbers
Increased funding for training healthcare professions, esp nurses and care aides, with retention strategies for those existing in healthcare and those coming into healthcare. Human resources are undervalued in our current system.
Decrease nurse-patient ratio to a SAFE ratio. Mandated vaccines for all health workers AND visitors.
People abused CERB. Nurses worked while people were lockdown at home. No incentive or appreciation for nurses.
I have no idea. More heavy handed consequences for those who break public health orders. Stricter checks for vaccination passport stuff (too many fakes)
Having vaccination mandated and not optional
Get rid of the masks and make the vaccine optional.
Access to a BC online LPN-RN bridging program. Increased wages for nurses, and our licensing fees covered. LPNs should not be paying the same fees as RNs.
Management who actually know what we do each day and support us to make patient care happen. Violence against health care workers ACTUALLY not being tolerated and punishable by criminal law, rather than placing a 'stop' sign in hospitals and management thinking they have done their best to protect their staff. More beds, more security and more resources - we are dying out here.
Safely staffed hospital units and emergency departments. Doctors willing to see patients in their office routinely.
The entire process there actually was no process….
Hold its ground on termination of unvaccinated employees.
Stop terminating so many appreciated health care workers, stop making people cover there face with clothes, stop shutting down flights and pushing so many regulations & restrictions. Stop pushing the vaccine. Just STOP. What I put into my body should and must be a choice solely decided by ME. All these “rules” put so much drama and effect on the already weaker humans. Those with mental illnesses, financial troubles, those wanting to go to university, and so on.
Better education. Have virologists and immunologists on every news channel. Flood Facebook and other social media outlets with evidenced based information. Society doesn’t go to a library search engine any more for evidence based research. We need to adapt our methods of spreading evidence based knowledge to the general public. Knowledge is key. People are scared and misinformed. It is our responsibility to change that.
Focus shift on retention of nurses. We’re pretty important
I want to see communities take ownership of their pandemic response on a very local level. Having it managed from a provincial level is important but we need a level of personal responsibility that needs a grassroots, neighborhood and municipal level response.
I would like them to create/better advertise COVID and COVID vaccine injury programs that the public can access. I would like to see GP's reopen to all in person appointments unless requested specifically by the patient. I would like to see them pay the critical care areas (ER, ICU, HAU) more than baseline nursing wages due to the increasingly complex nature of the work environment. I would also like to see BC change its mandate on terminating unvaccinated nurses - we NEED any willing and able bodied nurses to be working.
More nurses. More money for nurses
Transparency about EVERYTHING - case numbers, testing, contact tracing. And a COMPLETE separation between health and economics. Public Health should not cater to ANY political whim.
Mandatory vaccines and harsher penalties for those healthcare providers who are not vaccinated
an acknowledgement of the unintended consequences/negative impacts that even the most well intentioned public health measures can have. Lockdowns and other public health measures may save lives at one end but destroy lives elsewhere. I also think the early lockdown was a bit too much and burned through a lot of social capital and good will. I'm NOT anti-lockdown. I just feel like it was hard to have discussions without being lumped in with crazy people. Also...be clear on your messaging. Dr. Tam lost a lot of support and credibility when she did a 180 on masks.
More guidelines on appropriate telemedicine utilization. Better support for outpatient primary care clinics to move patient volume. A concerted effort to MOVE PEOPLE OUT of hospital-based care (ie. mental health, addictions, primary are presentations)
Stop mandatory Vaxx. Use simple outpatient rx. Take Vit D
No more mandates.
Base it in true science, be open minded, use other treatments, stop focussing on Vaccines as the only strategy, stop all the PCR testing! Stop media fear mongering.
A better way of getting message across that we can not sustaint this pandemic, going as we are the amount of hospital aquired covid is on the rise and it's not getting any better. Visitors need to stay away unless absolutely needed
No more mandates: stop the workplace discrimination surrounding vaccination, increase staffing and decrease violence
No segregation based vaccine status. follow the science. DO NOT GIVE THE SHOT TO KIDS!
Testing for all HCW regardless of vaccination as it’s the only way to ensure that the person who is working is free of virus. Also recognize that people who have had COVID do not require vaccination as they are protected from INFECTION and therefore don’t spread COVID
More Transparent.
Want the corrupt system to come down. Want our freedom BACK.
Let vaccines be a choice
Stop it!
Remove mandates, let people get back to their lives, and let covid run its course. There are enough people that have had covid or are vaccinated to let things go and get back to living. Canada was not a communist country till recently.
Allocate a set number of actual, existing/staffed critical care beds to unvaccinated COVID patients and keep the rest available to care for everyone else. Go back to doing elective surgeries and tests and caring for the general population. We have 21 actual ICU beds in Victoria and we’re the tertiary center for Island Health’s 800,000 people(!) Currently 9 of those beds are occupied by unvaccinated COVID patients, down from a peak of about 17. So that is still almost 50% of our already ridiculously low total number of ICU beds…. Makes no sense when it inevitably means people who have done all the right things— social distanced, stayed home, wore masks and got vaccinated— will die of cancer, heart disease etc that went undetected or weren’t treated expeditiously while we expend all our resources on people who have about a 50% mortality rate even with ICU care.
Nothing should be mandatory
Let everyone make decisions about their body, my body my decision
Stop the madness!
Stop these mandates. There is no pandemic.
Everything needs to be undone, reassessed and never approached ever again. Again, Sweden had not only the best response but some of the best overall results to prove it. This kind of response is the only thing that should be studied from here on out. The "tone" from all of the politicians and the PHO was the most ineffective and disgusting thing I, and everyone I speak to, has ever seen. It's Canada's fault that they purposefully educated us to believe we lived in a free country and we should always respect and fight for our rights. I didn't ask to be born here, so if you were going to raise us in this environment, you shouldnt be shocked when we don't accept sudden communist-type behaviour. Absolutely disgusting. All of it. No one wants to live in China or Russia for e.g. people escape from there unless you're well off. (Even then....) I do have Chinese friends, I get my information from proper sources.
I don’t know, sorry.
increased restrictions on people who refuse immunizations
More transparency with decision making and implementation. Streamline the dissemination of information to healthcare workers (why am I finding out policy changes from the media/Facebook/friends before management)
Acknowledging C19 is airborne and adopt adequate NPIs for all.
CANCELLING ELECTIVE SURGERIES! We are in a staffing crisis with forced overtime which puts nurses at high risk of making errors. Recognition of aersolization and protocols in place that support that (negative pressure rooms, no AGMP in open areas)
Better supports for under housed and homeless community members- we cannot beat this without everyone being acknowledged and supported
Train and hire more health care workers for all areas of healthcare.
More benefits for staff who are dedicated to work in their job
More emphasis on patients and staff and less about dollars and figures
From the top provincial leadership: they need to acknowledge that airborne transmission is the dominant form of transmission of this virus. There has been so much death and illness because of the refusal to deal with the dominant of transmission. I worry now that it may be too late for the public to care, even if DBH and others state the truth about aerosols.
Have more staff
Find a way for Healthcare workers that have left to come back.
Transparency, and Transparency
Strict restrictions and proper REINFORCEMENT.
Stop the vaccine mandates and the vaccine passports.Tell the truth especially the media who exaggerated covid fear and made people scared of unvaccinated people as if they have Covid.Enough fear mongering.Keep unvaccinated health care workers working.No coercion.
Early intervention and prevention for hospitals and clinics. An option of rapid testing for travel. No more mandates for employment and businesses.
Transparency
More money given to improve care
They need to compensate those who continually fighting the covid battle…hazard pay
the rules and restrictions need to make more sense, they are punishing the ones who are following the rules
To stop all the restrictions, the masks, vaccne mandates, vaccine passports, and to treat Covid with early treatment, to allow doctors to prescribe ivermection
EARLY treatment. Look at Florida or Texas. Start following the FLCCC guidelines for covid treatment in the hospital and at home.
My body, My Choice. Return of all Human Rights or Charter of Rights. Application of Nuremberg Code2 to covid19 vaxx, no more mask and lock down, new law to remove conflict of interest, make media not deoendent on government for funding
I would like government to take swift and drastic action to address the immediate need for nurses in Healthcare. They need to add incentives like bonuses to draw in more staff, and need to increase wage to encourage staff to work thier regular shifts.
Also remove the vaccine mandate for Healthcare workers so we can get those people back to work.
The current protocol for covid positive patients is clearly ineffective. It has been almost 2 years now since the start of this pandemic. There are multiple studies of other medication use to combat this virus along with various vitamins. Why are physicians having their licenses revoked for trying to help their patients?
Increased staffing, stronger regulations, streamlined care for Covid patients
Open up the world and let our greatest mother of all sort out the rest.
Drop illegal vax mandate. Be honest about data and science. 0.03% death rate, you WILL get covid eventually, how many boosters again? Bonnie, adrian and horgan out. They've been bought and paid by JT and big pharma. Research everything YOURSELF!!! Take 15 min and go to each drug website..
Quicker, tougher, sad response lead to healthcare crises we are denied talking about.

Is there anything else you'd like us to know?

Critical care staff does not grow on trees. They take years to educate and develop, and forcing them to “surge” and provide substandard care is driving them out of the field— and they WON’T be back. This is going to negatively impact staffing for a decade.
Of the total number of student nurses at our local university, 70% have said they don’t want to work in hospitals having done their clinical placements there during COVID. They plan to work in public health or community care instead, or leave the profession entirely.
Aggression and anger towards our health care team doesn’t help
At least where I work healthcare workers are accused of inciting fear any time they speak up. They are discouraged from openly sharing advice or giving opinions that contradict PHO orders.
At this point we are unable to adequately and safely care for patients and the burn out is causing the minimal staff left to be unable to show optimal compassion and provide optimal care. There’s no incentive to stay and it’s difficult showing up to work and not being able to safely care for patients
BH and AD both need to resign.
Camaraderie amongst my colleagues has been live saving.
Chilliwack general hospital is in an absolute staffing crisis.
Covid-19 has been under-reported by hospitals. The public deserves to know the truths.
Dehumanizing you’re staff and not acknowledging the human experience is non supportive.
Don't tell white lies in a pandemic especially. Vaccine mandates and passports were outright refused publically by Bonnie Henry at a time when the Delta variant was raging in India and we were still flying planes in from there. Bonnie Henry and everyone else knew full well what the Delta variant was about at the time she said we will never have vaccine passports because they divide society, deepen inequity etc etc. You cannot state these things and then go so far against what you have already stated, to the point you are FIRING critical healthcare staff for not getting vaccines. Including healthcare staff that work at HOME or have NO direct patient care. How is it that we go from denying we will ever have vaccine passports to having a fully developed and functioning province-wide app within a few months. Come-on!!! My brother works for the federal government in computer programming.. I know for a fact this isn't possible to pull together that quickly out of no where. Another "white lie" is to not admit mRNA vaccines are new. This isn't even arguable. You (people at your level), have companies like Mirriam Webster change the meanings of vaccination to meet your lie and suddenly validate your statements. Someone had the CDC suddenly erased the bold printed statement on their website that said masks should NEVER be worn during excessive exercise. Again.. Come-ON. They were right, they should never be promoted for exercise, ever.How do you expect compliance when the people are sitting here blatantly watching you do these things!? It's unbelievable how short sighted you all are!! Absolutely unbelievable. My own mom started believing in the mask. She has zero training and she contaminated my entire house with her dirty mask that she wore ALL day all over the city, in and out of stores, off and on her face. How DARE you undermine the healthcare workers true and proper knowledge of how and when to wear masks. Do you know how much work it was to basically sterilize my entire house where the dirty mask kept appearing ? I could have caught Covid !!The standards are clear, they go in the garbage after use and in order to effectively use a mask for the purpose of proper infection control this is not possible or sustainable when they are being mandated to be worn EVERYWHERE, and all the time, by untrained people!!. Especially to places like restaurants where they must come off the face and be STORED somewhere. Also, a 94% vaccination rate (Fraser Health), should be celebrated not be a doorway to still pushing the remaining staff to take a vaccine they clearly don't want. If the odd unvaccinated healthcare worker is such a danger (again the science didn't state this before covid and none has been adequately outlined since), why did I work amongst the odd unvaccinated coworker for the entire duration of the pandemic and never once got sick or even heard of anyone including the unvaccinated coworker get sick.

How many times do I have to say "Come-On!!!"? I haven't even gotten into the issue of vaccine side effects. Do most people suffer from side effects from the covid 19 vaccinations?.. no, they seemingly don't. But do the side effects exist? Yes. Are the doctors in hospitals always recording these vaccine side effects that at times send patients to the hospital. No. This is unacceptable.
These are new vaccines and if what you say is true, that you are truly looking out for the best interests of Canadian's health, you should be excited to practice medicine competently and record any symptoms that occur around the time someone is vaccinated. Why the aversion to analysis? Menstrual changes as a side effect of mRNA vaccines is real. You cannot stand there and mandate these vaccines past the level of a 94% vaccination rate and completely ignore the data. Don't you dare call me an anti-anything for speaking the truth, or just flatly wanting to discuss this either.
I don't use social media, I don't even have data, I have banned the news from my tv in my home, my data comes from the mouths of patients themselves and witnessing many many doctors be averse to discussing anything that could be slightly perceived as negative against most all measures but especially vaccines. This is not safe medical practice. I gave covid 19 vaccinations. I gave approximately 190 of them. That's 190 interviews, and this is where I first learned of the menstrual changes in women after the first dose of vaccine (Pfizer is all I gave). None of them reported it. None. One told their doctor and their doctor told them "not to worry about it", no report was filed. So the data you do have isn't accurate and you are encouraging it to be this way. The states has a v-safe program and a whole pamphlet given to each patient about how they can properly report any side effects. I received my vaccine in the states and received this form. End all of the top down over-the-top "stuff" now. People are now dying and becoming incapacitated from other things related to covid measures at a way higher rate than covid, and you know it. Why are we not helping the people mentally devastated by all of this by now. Why are you continuing to make it worse when this is no longer necessary. You've had your 2 years almost. Enough is enough!!!
Employees have all signed contracts which do not allow them to speak against the employer
ERPs across Canada are burnt-out and many are considering/attempting to find exit strategies.
Give people freedom of expression, freedom of choice
Have an open discussions on both sides, and be transparent, stop the fear, coercion, separation, bullying, discrimination. We did our best since 2020, we can do better than promoting fear. We can staff our healthcare that’s been struggling for years instead of terminating people who are just making a health choice.
Health authorities really need to work on nurse retention strategies. If nurses were not burnt out, over worked, underpaid, unappreciated etc. etc. they would willing to get vaccinated, stay in working nursing or do whatever it took. Nursing is a calling and no one walks away willing. But this pandemic has is a breaking point for many who were already broken. None of the issues we had with management before Covid are being addressed, they are just on the back burner. But how long will this go on? How long will we work short? How long will equipment and safety problems last unaddressed? Covid could be here forever… It is frustrating and so many are just using the vaccine as an excuse when there are so many other problems under the surface if look a little deeper. Years of pent up pain and rage.
Health care workers/nurses needed lighter work loads and larger income to recruit!!
Healthcare in general need a raise. We save people’s lives and we have barely any compensation. People are leaving in droves. You want more nurses to stay pay them what they’re worth. Stop this feminine pay bullshit.
Help us. We are beyond exhausted. The moral in healthcare industry is so low
Honestly what would those that doubt believe? You could share all the stories, and you would be mocked. The trust is so broken between healthcare and those we are supposed to serve. How did we get here? I have cared for my patients wholeheartedly my whole career to the best of my ability and will continue to do so. This pandemic will not be the end of my days in healthcare. I love my job and I will outlast this.
Huge increase in mental health clients and the drug overdose crisis is overwhelming our emergency departments right now. A lot of anxiety and depression in our younger population, 18-40 year Olds. They seek help in ER but the ER is overwhelmed.
I am grateful for all the engineering experts who have relentlessly advocated for ventilation and appropriate masks. So glad they didn't "stay in their lane". Also grateful to all the experienced healthcare professionals who have given presentations to the public via ProtectBC (despite what some prominent members of the press corps have said!).
I am pro vaccine. But I hate how covid has divided us.
I am seeing that the pandemic is not about stopping the transmission of the virus it is something bigger, especially with the vaccine passports, very concerning and unsettling
I am so fed up with with the BC PHO and the obfuscation and lack of recognition that covid is airborne.
Also exhausted by all the anger out there.
I come home from work feeling defeated and like I’ve run a race for 12 hours. It starts the minute you walk on the unit and some days it feels like the only break you get is when you sit on in the bathroom to relieve yourself.
I do not feel supported by my employer, my union, my licensing body or my government
I feel broken
I have a very sick son who has been unable to access help in BC since Covid began. Since BC has few programs, if any, he was referred to a specialist in Alberta who closed his practice since Covid began. Our doctor never referred him to anyone else despite asking. My son has been waiting for years now. He cannot work or attend school. Due to his illness, I have researched many conditions, for example dysautonomia and found BC does not even have a dysautonomia clinic and this is alarming. It is not rare and either is chronic fatigue syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). For those with Chronic Fatigue, the only clinic in BC has at least a 3 year wait and does not do any clinical trails. This is also alarming. I have also contacted the rare disease association of BC and have learned that many of those patients have no resources and are forced to crowd fund to access diagnostics, testing, and treatment in the USA. Health Care is failing in Canada and there is research to prove it. Connect with associations, read the research from SFU on Crowd funding, read the research from think tanks. Health Care is badly in need of a complete overhaul.
I have already quit nursing. I may one day go back, but I am actively looking for different work. I do not miss it. Nursing was a dream, and a calling, and the government’s inaction even before Covid, broke me.
I have been treated with discrimination and inequality when accessing medical care either through a walk in doctor, ambulance, or hospital due to vaccine status. I know many folks who were denied access altogether to medical services in BC.

I planned to go into private practice and now I am waiting to see about the new mandate for Colleges to take away my license. I’m addition, I was denied being able to get further continuing education to become a trauma therapist that I had paid and registered for two years ago as it was an in person conference starting this January. Isn’t more trauma therapists needed now more than ever?
I have never seen staff shortages to this extent.
I have worked 37 yrs in healthcare and 27 as a nurse if I am not willing to take this jab and loose my job their are real reasons
I know of three infants less than 1 month old since August that have died of respiratory distress. 1 of 3 tested positive for sure. 2 of 3 had positive covid parents. The third I don't know either way. This is scary. These stats aren't out there, aren't included on the charts.
I love being a nurse, and feel like I am destined to be an amazing icu nurse. We are so short staffed, being forced to take on severely unsafe situations, and this is causing severe moral injury. We have to daily weigh the pros and cons of everything we do, and have to decide if we are risking our license or not. We were so short staffed before the pandemic, and now it is just getting worse. I am terrified, and feel guilty because I am not safe to practice right now. I should never have been placed in a situation where I felt like I couldn’t properly care for my patients. We also need time off! I begged for some days off, vacation anything and was denied because of operational requirements. I was shortly after on leave for PTSD. I understand it is challenging, but why is patient safety no longer considered a priority? Let alone worker safety. I was emotionally destroyed. I cannot even get a booster shot without having a panic attack. My memory is destroyed, I now need a pill pack to make sure I take my antidepressant l, which was never required prior. I was never needing an antidepressant before. I increased my alcohol content to help me sleep, and still was working with only a few hours sleep. I once had an incredible memory, and could remember everything. Today, I don’t even know if I have taken a pill. Now think about working with this, med errors are extremely high risk. Assessments cannot be remembered. I am terrified to call the physician, because I am now so terrified as to whether I have caught what I needed to. I am off because I am not safe to practice. I have gone into severe debt, because I have been too traumatized to even make a claim about my condition. I am in therapy, this happy sunshine that used to be present is now an image of the past. I am terrified to call families, because I will get yelled at. Wave 3 destroyed everything that is me. I lost 50 pounds in 2 months, and still am so traumatized I still struggle to eat. I am focusing on healing, so I can be that amazing nurse again. If conditions don’t improve, I may never heal enough to come back.
I love my job, I am the same person from last year dealing with Covid patient and this year I am on punishment chair !
I pray for your courage to speak out and blow all the whistles silenced. This is so wrong!
I support the vaccine, I do not support the mandate. I am tired of working short staffed. I am tired of not feeling compensated or valued.
I think about retiring early almost every day I am at work
I trained to get into this position-it is sad to have to leave - I believe I good at my job - I have been told over and over the system is broken by all the nurses and doctors - we need a new system- so let’s build it!
I want focus to be less on number of beds in provincial reporting/updates and more on number of safely staffed beds...that is what really needs reporting...
I want the health care workers who are refusing the vaccine to be treated with respect and be allowed to keep their jobs.They are the real super heroes.
I wish the world would go back into quarantine secretly
I work in an already severely understaffed and specialized care area. Two of three of our specialty trained RNs are casual and yet they were working full time. Due to the vaccine mandate, we are down to one casual, which means the rest of the staff have to work more than full time. How long does one think we will last before we’re off on stress leave or quit? Then what??
I would like Bonnie Henry to have an open debate with Dr. Byram Bridle
I would like the general public to stop pretending they are experts in everything and defer to the real experts when it really counts... like now.
I would love to see a report about the amount of money the health authorities waste on BS that makes no difference! Like the temporary walls around the COVID cohort in emerg that don’t even allow AGP. Or the amount of money wasted to transport an ECMO patient from RCH to VGH for a consult, only to have them transported back to RCH for palliation. Why emergency has become a place for emergencies, prescription renewals, primary care, palliative care, long term care, psychiatric hold, pediatric psychiatric care, a drunk tank, etc yet we have no additional staffing or resources.
I'm about done putting my job ahead of my physical and mental health and I am not alone. Nickel and diming health care has blown up in our federal faces. Own it. It is time to make some changes and not just promises. Look at the Westshore community on Vancouver Island. 600 MORE condos going in and yet - the trauma centre has been standing since 1983 with no increase in beds. THIS MAKES ZERO SENSE. Our bed rate per capita is a national embarrassment.
I'm planning to move to another province for cheaper cost of living and being able to afford to work 2 days a week or work in a different profession where I'm happy
I've probably said too much
I’m a newish nurse (1.5 years) I shouldn’t be this burnt out. There is significantly more appreciation demonstrated by the people in our community than by managers/ceos ect
I’m amazed there aren’t more in hospital acquired infections as ppl are jammed in lunch rooms, many staff are not following mask mandates in hospitals properly. Infection control should be doing walk throughs to be proactive & we NEVER have seen them once since the pandemic started. All the managers want is increasing pt throughput in imaging over safety.
I’ve left hospital work after feeling unsafe and unprotected when caring for C19+ve or suspected +ve patients.
Icu should be paid more
In my opinion, long term care has experienced the worst outbreaks because of the inadequate ventilation systems at these facilities. At our site, we had to quote worksafe legislation before pool nuddles would be removed from the HVAC system. Common sense wasn't enough! That's scary!
It frightens me to think about being a new grad in this health care system. It is broken.
It may seem heavy handed but I believe those who forgo vaccination for personal reasons should, for the sake of preserving our healthcare system, exempt themselves from ICU care if they contract COVID.
It might be a good idea to ask for stories in a separate data collection? Don’t know how you could anonymize them or how to get the consent, but the public has a right to know how the pandemic has affected actual people, and the reluctance of the media to relay stories is demoralizing.

Stories are so powerful.

But then again hopefully, this too shall pass.
It's a constant daily battle to survive a working day. Being moved around and not providing consitentt care; upper management just keeps pushing for us to do more than what we can safely do, moving us from floor to floor is not going to help the virus from spreading, a body is not just a body it's a spreader of the virus throughout the hospital
It’s a grim future
Its plain unsafe for nurses and patients on a good day. There is not enough staff and resources to go around and the pandemic has only made this worse.
Justice for the deaths and injury brought about by tge Mandates
keep on the great advocacy work
Keep pushing forward and spreading real data. More people will pay attention if they know what’s actually happening.
Kelowna hospital is barely surviving
Lots, contact me
Make sure the public knows and understand that if we continue to work short, with no or minimal recognition, patients will be left not cared for properly/safely. We are human after all, we need to care for ourselves, we need to be cared for and respected before we can care safely for others.
Many nurses as retiring early and leaving acute care as the strain is too much
Need more union support. Want to know what’s going on with pensions. Want a better wage- a dog walker makes more for crying out loud
Need salary raise. After all the economic inflation, it’s getting harder to support the family. Meanwhile, it’s ironic to see BCCNM continuing to increase our license fee during pandemic with no reason. Potential income tax raise for next year. There’s ppl still taking CRBs while there’s factually no benefit in working or continue to work overtimes.
No
No
Nobody should have to be afraid to go to work. Nobody should have to go into therapy and go on medication to cope with what they see at work, as the majority of my colleagues have. It is inhumane to expect healthcare workers to continue in these conditions.
Nope.
Not at the moment
Nurses are leaving because we are treated like a “body” not a person. Redeployment and a toxic work environment is taking a toll.
Nurses are set to strike if we are not given better working conditions and wages come April when our current contract expires. There will be job action.
Nurses are university educated today they can be anything or anyone they want . Funny Nursing ain’t it . Hospitals are in the dark ages . Nurses quit faster than you can learn their names . Good on them . I have waited 46 years for these women to wake up - And They Finally Have !! They are not subservient, another pretty face , hand maiden , do as we are told , believe what we are told , dr’s are right , do everybody’s job because everybody goes home . Hospitals are a big F—— Joke . Nurses have given up plain and simple . They are walking right out the door, they are not coming back .
Nurses need safe and better staffing levels and the employers need to treat us better in order to retain the ones they have and recruit new ones. It's simple.
Nursing is a hard, often no rewards which has left to the mass exodus of senior nurses whose health was placed in jeopardy due to a pandemic, leaving younger nurses with less to train from.
Nursing shortage is already horrific, causing bad patient outcomes. Nursing cannot take the brunt of the blame because we have no control over staffing and are burning out by working at 150% every day (or 2-300% if we think of actual patient load). The government BOTH provincially and federally needs to acknowledge the issue and take action, and health authorities need to stop covering it up. It's bad and we need help or there will be a further exodus of nurses.
Oh so much, being on the inside there is so much I'd like to share.
One of the first concepts we learn in nursing school is “critical thinking”. It drives the decisions we make in order to provide the best care for our patients. I believe this concept is being overrun by the fear that has been instilled into us. It is clear that transparency is lacking in our healthcare system right now and informed decision making is not happening within our public.
Our Health Care System always tenuous
Our hospital was NEVER overwhelmed with COVID patients. We had "outbreaks" after 2nd jab was given. It isn't possible to get outbreaks in a controlled environment.. we wore our PPE. Patient's had to stay at their bedside. Jabbed were coming in with COVID. Increase in admissions after the jabs. Hospital was QUIET the first summer prior to jabs. QUIET!!!
Our unit is the heaviest. We’re always short 3-5 nurses almost daily.
Patient care is compromised every day as we continue to accept more acute patients to free up space in ICU. It's unsafe for us and it's unfair to the patients.
People need to get vaccinated this is not going away. Wave 4 is the worst yet and there is no end in site.
Please speak for us and tell our stories. Nurses are so muzzled by both the employer and the union it feels incredibly difficult to create any meaningful change.
Rioting in front of a hospital does not solve anything.
Something needs to change or the system will completly fall aparr
Staff got an email that gowns between pts must be changed. That if you get covid because of your uniform you won’t be covered by work BC. While those nurses prob wore surgical masks. Now after an outbreak visitors are finally require to be vaccinated. We are in a state of undeclared code orange but local gvmt continues to carry on. Under testing is a problem.
Staffing shortages are unbelievably challenging and not getting better with the current systems in place
Start asking the tough questions, show some integrity and backbone for the healthcare workers and the people of this province. Start telling your College to get out of the way and let you start treating your patients without coercion and threats!!
Stop fear mongering. Stop media influence
Thank you for doing this. Unilateral choice of public health care only will continue to lead to wasted funds, unaccountable admin, and no competitive alternatives. Without choices in health care beyond voluntary organizations like PoPBC we will get more of the same. Allowing a choice for privately run and funded institutions is increasingly needed to hold our Gov’t storyline accountable.
Thank you for this and for giving us a voice.
That most nurses are so tired, wages can't keep up with inflation
That what is happening is only the beginning. Search "lock step" they have been planning this for years
The “jab in every arm” policy is a failure. Wake up to what is happening elsewhere.
The abuse of the elderly has been horrendous
The covid vaccine doesn't kill people..covid dies
The level 1 trauma centre ER where I work is critically short nurses. The current solution is to bring in new graduate nurses to bridge the losses of the senior staff. A new graduate or novice ED nurse cannot simply replace the experience, critical thinking, and critical eye that an experienced nurse has. Rather than filling our departments with new nurses, we need to be supporting education initiatives to enhance the professional competency of the existing staff and then work to build mentorship from there.
The media needs to start reporting truth and both sides of what is happening. There is so much misleading information being put out to the public, and they deserve to hear the other side to make more informed decisions as that is mandatory for any Health care decision, which has been ignored. There should have been open conversation, with a panel of doctors broadcasted to the country instead of one person dictating to us what they have to do or else.
The past 18 months have been traumatizing, demoralizing but also inspiring in the way that the healthcare teams continue to show updating and day out.
The situation in hospitals is worse than government is reporting.
The stress is real.
The system was struggling before COVID. The violence, short staffing, workload and unreasonable demands have increased exponentially since.
There are currently 86 paramedics that have been terminated for not getting the vaccine
There is a mass lack of education on PPE use in healthcare which is why new outbreaks are popping up
There is so much top down control and lack of transparency from federal, provincial governments, we are losing our constitutional rights. There needs to be open scientific debate. We need to address the censorship to this debate.
There's so much propagation of fear and lack of common sense. Fear is ruling. There is no public education on immune boosters to minimize disease.
This has been a difficult time for me
This is a spiritual war - that’s why the rules don’t make any sense!
This is not what we signed up for.
This pandemic and the response broke me. Fighting to save lives on minimal staffing, having the same legal and moral responsibilities and being unable to meet them becomes the impossible task.
This pandemic has forced many frontliners out of the hospital. As I sit here utterly defeated I have been essentially unpaid and financial stress on top of what I’ve had to endure, has negativity affects my health. There are many layers of red tape to navigate to try and keep a roof over my head and food on the table. There are wait times for the required psychological assessment for WorkSafeBC claims; Medical EI wait times; and wait times for applying for Long term disability. I wonder if these 3 agencies have seen a tsunami of applications from healthcare providers that have had to choose they own medical/mental fitness over continuing to work in unsafe conditions.
This system has been broken for years. Mismanagement, nepotism, and out dated thinking by administration. The system is top heavy and they do nothing of true importance. I know I worked upper level for 6 years and had to go back to front line as it was just a waste of my days. Literally we did nothing but go in circles.
When Covid hit they just all went home and left us to man the fort. No one noticed their absence. We worked just fine without them. Probably better.

The Covid response is half done. Sometimes patients are tested but mostly not. The lab threw away a test I sent because there weren’t enough symptoms to test. They have rules set out. By who? Is our government setting directives to keep numbers low? I had a ICU doc get really mad because I tested a very ill patient. He Said it just complicates things. Patients with possible Covid are not masked or we are not told. Meanwhile they are mixed with every other patient and healthcare worker.

Emerg is overflowing, ambulances can’t hand over patients and get to next call. My colleagues in Emerg say most days they are responsible for 30 patients. Lack of staff, and sheer number of patients. Most don’t have family doctors and walk in clinics fill as soon as they open so the only option is emergency.

Also I’m so disturbed by the number and type of surgeries we are doing. Unethical and cruel. Really experimental and practice on the elderly. OR surgeries where the outcomes are going to be bad but the patient was told the opposite. There is no watch dog for physicians and they know it. I have examples of what I’ve seen and it is morally reprehensible.

So much to say. So much more. It is just all in vain though. Nothing changes. I’m leaving this profession. I’m only 55.
Throughout the whole "pandemic", working on Ambulance and Fire, I have never seen or attended to one Covid positive patient, I have never been contacted through contact tracing, so the patients we left at hospital obviously weren't positive, despite working way more shifts than I normally would. However, I have seen more possible vaccine injuries than I care to think about, including sudden deaths, strokes in younger women, GI bleeds with clotting, miscarriages and a really disturbing case of severe neurological damage, what's more incredible is that I live in a small community, so what is going on in the cities that nobody is talking about? Now I'm about to be fired for not taking the shot, can anybody blame me?
Violence in nursing has always been an issue. Violence since the pandemic has reached new levels. Healthcare workers are being verbally, emotionally and physically assaulted.
We are DONE. Healthcare in BC is in crisis and unless we get better staffing ratios and appropriate pay for what we deal with- it will only get worse!!! I have worked as an RN for 37 years- the public response to Covid and the reluctance to follow guidelines has been frustrating/ unnecessary and shows a complete disrespect for those of us trying to provide healthcare. You have the right to refuse the vaccine- but that decision comes with consequences. Yet those same people expect care from BC healthcare workers when they get sick!!!
We are highly educated and in a nursing shortage world wide. We work holidays that other folks get off without question. We work with people & illnesses that sometimes scare us. We show up when everyone else stays home. We deserve not only respect, but the ability to have a life/work balance & proper remuneration.
We are incredibly understaffed and if the public don't complain to government, that will not change and it will cost lives. It is costing lives.
We are not ok, and this is not sustainable.
We are pushing through too many surgeries, especially here on the Island. I work in a PACU and we’ve lost almost half our staff this year due to burnout from increased surgeries. We increased surgery numbers by about 15% but our staffing levels actually decreased. The math doesn’t work. They used to cancel surgeries when PACU was understaffed, due to safety issues, but not anymore. Yesterday, they did so many surgeries, we had the ORs on hold, unable to come into PACU, for 2-3 hours at a time. Evening and night shifts are the worst in terms of being short staffed, but they don’t stop doing surgeries. Now we’re taking esophagectomy patients, who previously went to ICU post-op. These patients are labour intensive and take up a lot of space in PACU, which adds to our issues. Leadership still tries to give us a second PACU patient, while we’re dealing with the esophagectomy patient, even though that patient should be 1:1 nursed. We work short 3-8 nurses every day, with no slow down in surgeries. Out sick calls are increasing. I went casual over the summer, as I couldn’t deal with it all anymore, and I’m now actively looking for casual work elsewhere. I love PACU nursing, and I’m really good at my job, but I can’t do it anymore.
We are struggling. Mentally and physically.

The healthcare system is the titanic. We’re sinking and all about to drown. Most of us already have drowned.

Nurses are leaving the profession all together.

It’s a VERY scary time.
We are working short, missing breaks, expected to do more with less support and resouces
We go through so much abuse by patients and govt need to increase our pay. Nurse
S are getting extra covid pay 3 dollars and lab working tirelessly nothing.
We have zero support of admin or govt l. You would never do our job for the pay we receive.
We made it thru pandemic didn’t loose to many residents, not long after their vaccines were given we lost 6 residents close together under slightly different circumstances but not C19 related!?
We need action now from the goverment
We need more staff!
We need new options. Different newly approved vaccines & medications to help fight Covid, that will keep people out of the hospitals.
We need nurses to be on the same page- we need nurses to get vaccinated and lead by example
We need to attract more staff.
We need to be on the same side but I feel abandoned at the front lines. The public deserves to know how bad things are, not just for those who are sick and unvaccinated, but those who are sick and can't access care because we are inundated and over capacity.
We went from having Covid patients isolated to specific units at the hospital to now where we may receive patients who could be Covid positive to any unit. I work on a unit with immunocompromised transplant patients who could quite literally be staying in the room next door from a possible or confirmed Covid case. It makes no sense to increase these high risk populations exposure risk to Covid.
When nurses are threatened or assaulted, the employer is quick to blame nurses and ask how WE could approach these situations differently next time. We have been told that violence and aggression are part of our job!
Working in critical care during this time has tested all of us ..it has tested who I am personally and professionally and to still see no end in site and the state of health care today it is exhausting and feels insurmountable.
You will all have to answer for your actions (or lack)

Archived Briefings from Protect Our Province BC

As we start a new school year, clean air in schools is a vital issue not only because of the health effects from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and air pollution, but because of the direct link to the ability of children to learn. Hear about the new recommendations for Indoor Air Quality in Schools and Childcare Facilities from Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health.
“For some of the most vulnerable patients, the air in the hospital can be deadlier than the diagnosis that brought them in” Join Protect our Province BC and Drs. Susan Lee, Jean Warneboldt, and Victor Leung to hear about their advocacy, their struggles and successes in improving the air quality in different BC Health Authorities. Why are different healthcare administrations within BC treating this critical topic so differently - in one, obstructing and blocking and in another rewarding and awarding?
In honor of February being Heart Month, cardiologist Dr. Leslie Kasza joined Protect our Province BC’s Dr. Susan Kuo for a discussion on COVID-19’s impact on heart health and how you can reduce your risk. Don’t be fooled into thinking it won’t happen to you because you are _________, fill in the blank: young, healthy vaccinated and/or you only had a mild infection, etc.

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