Nurses tell of 'horrific' workloads

BY ALICE COWDREY

Stressed-out nurses at Nelson Hospital who have had enough of "horrific" shifts are leaving their jobs.

The hospital board's belt-tightening and policy to not replace staff has resulted in seven nurses getting in touch with The Nelson Mail to express their concerns over intolerable stress levels and staff shortages.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board chief executive John Peters said today he would "not attempt to respond to general and unsubstantiated allegations about staff and patient safety".

The board had a recovery plan to address its deficit which has blown out to $2.28 million with a forecast deficit of $5.4m for the year, and staff and unions were being kept informed of the measures taken.

One nurse, who said she sought counselling after months of stressful shifts, ended up resigning. She said six other nurses had also left their jobs at the ward she worked in since September last year and most were not being replaced.

The woman, who wants to remain anonymous, said she was speaking out because she believed it was important to battle for patient and nurse safety. She believed nurses needed a lawyer to work in their defence because of a lack of action over their concerns from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and hospital managers. Letters shown to The Nelson Mail outline a detailed complaint she made to senior management, including the director of nursing, last year.

In the letter, the nurse points to a shift last winter which prompted nurses to file an incident form.

It was one of the "many horrific shifts" she had to work. There were four nurses when six should have been on with six admissions, a cardiac arrest and a death. She had no meal break and each nurse had seven to eight patients as well as a student to oversee.

She said that when nurses told management, their usual response was to fill out an incident form. "This answer is a scapegoat and is stated all the time." Management responded that her issues were "significant" and they would look into her concerns through a ward review.

The Nelson Mail has seen one other letter from staff to management outlining the "crisis" at the hospital and containing serious allegations which put nurses' safety at risk.

Mr Peters said the board had looked at every staff vacancy as it occurred "to see if there are different ways we can work that save money but also keep our high standards of care".

"For example, we are looking at doing complex surgery that requires more than three days in hospital earlier in the week and thereby decreasing the weekend workload on the wards and staff."

Patient safety was "always paramount" when making decisions about staffing level, he said. "We take staff concerns very seriously and address them through the systems in place that require us to do a full investigation." The DHB now employed 50 more nurses than two years ago, he said.

The new director of nursing, Robyn Henderson, said a meeting yesterday with Nelson Hospital nurses was "very positive".

SPEAKING OUT

Former Nelson Hospital nurse: "As nurses we expect the odd busy horrible shift, but this becomes an ethical dilemma when the majority of shifts are like this."

"Lives have already been put at risk, with deaths occurring."

"The environment at this hospital is already at crisis point, with staff leaving and patient deaths. How the hell are staff going to cope with cutbacks if the environment has already been so badly affected in the past few years? The winter will be a nightmare from hell."

Current nurse: "Maternity staff have been leaving in droves over the past 18 months and there has been a policy not to replace them."

- © Fairfax NZ News