Ottawa intensive care nurse says local ICUs ‘very full,’ phone constantly ringing

By Mike Vlasveld

A part-time intensive care unit nurse at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) Civic Campus says the ICU is very full and staffing shortages are creating even more challenges.

“We've actually been sort of at or over capacity for several weeks now,” Alicia Robblee told CityNews' The Rob Snow Show on Monday, January 17, 2022. “And there just doesn't seem to be any sign of that slowing down.”

Capacity issues extend beyond the ICUs as well, making it difficult get patients out of the unit.

“When we have patients who are ready to leave the ICU, whether that's to go to a floor or to long-term care, there are no beds for them outside of the ICU. Everything is just so backlogged,” she explained.

Robblee says, typically it's one patient per nurse in an ICU, but each nurse now has multiple, which means they aren't able to easily help another nurse if a difficult situation arises.

Adding to these problems is the overall staffing shortage.

“My phone is just going constantly. Going off constantly with requests for me to come into work,” Robblee said. “Sometimes it's more of a personal plea almost, saying, you know, 'We're down four nurses. Can you please come in for any hours?'”

Unfortunately, the nurse says there's not much that can be done about staff needing to stay home when sick.

Listen to Robblee's full conversation with Rob Snow:

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