Vanessa Ivimey’s daughter, Ivy Murray, has a gene mutation called SNC2A, which is known to cause early-onset epilepsy and developmental delays. The three-year-old’s symptoms include seizures, which intensified in April this year after the family tested positive for COVID-19. The two spent more than 40 nights at the hospital between April and July, and Ivimey said she witnessed a worrying shortage of staff during that time. “I see nurses having to make decisions about which child to take care of first,” she said, adding that most days she counted four nurses to cover both the regular pediatric unit and the intensive care unit. “It’s certainly never an overstaffed situation where you feel like … they’re adequately able to help you and your child.” WATCHES | Parent raises alarm over staff shortages in pediatric unit at Kingston General Hospital
Parent raises alarm over staff shortages in pediatric unit at Kingston General Hospital
Vanessa Ivimey, whose daughter is often hospitalized for a gene mutation that involves seizures, says she learned to use hospital equipment herself to monitor her child’s condition when nurses weren’t available.
Loss of trust in the medical system
Ivimey said the lack of nursing staff forced her to take her daughter’s care into her own hands. After noticing that her daughter wasn’t getting the necessary medication on time, Ivimey said she started bringing medicine from home. She also decided to learn how to use the oxygen machine her daughter needed when she had seizures. On one of those occasions, she said she called for help and her daughter was “turning blue.” “No one was coming … so I ran back to our room and did what I saw the other nurses do. I put her on her side, turned on the oxygen machine. I put the mask on her face. I made sure she was breathing properly,” he said. Kingston General Hospital seen from a drone in December last year. (Patrick Morrell/CBC) Ivimey does not blame the hospital staff or nurses for these cases, but rather the medical system as a whole. “To think that the children’s unit is undeserving of the same care that the other units get, it’s really hard not to get angry,” he said, adding that he feels compassion for the overworked staff. The experience has taken a toll on Ivimey’s mental health, and she said it is difficult to focus on caring for her daughter.
Hospitals in critical staff shortages
The Kingston Health Sciences Center said the hospital is one of many across the country facing critical staff shortages across all units and programs, including pediatrics. “This shortage is the result of many factors,” the hospital said in a statement, citing absenteeism, early retirements and staff leaving the healthcare industry as some of the reasons. While the health center is actively recruiting to fill vacancies, the shortage of trained health care providers across the province has made this difficult. Ivy Murray, 3, has been in and out of intensive care at Kingston General Hospital’s pediatric unit since April. (Submitted by Vanessa Ivimey) The hospital recommends that anyone with concerns contact their patient relations team. Ivimey said she didn’t do that because she was worried her concerns would be misunderstood. “They have great nurses and a social worker, and administrative staff who are there who try really hard, and I always worry that I’m going to come across as saying the staff aren’t doing their job,” she said. he said. “It’s not like this”. Vanessa Ivimey had to learn how to use the oxygen machine on her daughter during her seizures because of a lack of nursing staff. (Submitted by Vanessa Ivimey)
Do something now, says the union in the province
Doris Greenspoon, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO), said Ontario already had 22,000 registered nurses before the pandemic began and the shortage has worsened, putting nurses under a greater workload to make up the shortfall. “If something is not done substantially very, very soon, there could be a place of no return,” he said. A few months from now it may be too late.- Doris Grinspun, CEO of RNAO Greenspoon said a survey conducted by RNAO shows 75 percent of nurses are burned out and more than half are considering stepping away from patient care or leaving the profession altogether. “That’s why families are in a situation where they have to start doing some of the caregiving because nurses have double, triple the workload,” Greenspoon added. For the union, those solutions include increasing bonuses, removing salary caps and speeding up license processing for internationally educated nurses to ease pressure on the health care system. Greenspoon said bringing in retired nurses to act as mentors would also help ease the burden, as well as bring in more nurses to support the hospital staff. “Now is the time because, you know, a few months from now it might be too late,” he said.
