‘There’s never been a downtick:’ Nurses brace for 6th wave of COVID-19 in Ontario

A nurse at a downtown Toronto hospital says nurses are hitting a breaking point as the sixth wave of COVID-19 approaches in Ontario.

Public health indicators, like the amount of those in hospitals and recent wastewater data, show the rate of COVID-19 is increasing. Virus-related hospitalizations on Wednesday were up 27 per cent over last week.

However, the actual number of people getting sick with COVID-19 is not available to do the limited amount of testing being conducted in the province. Only a limited number of residents can access PCR tests.

The Ford government announced on Wednesday that it would continue to offer free rapid antigen tests to the general public through existing channels like grocery stores and pharmacies. RATs will also be provided for free at workplaces, schools, hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes and other congregate settings.

“We are seeing people coming in sick, and many of them are in denial. I don’t think the numbers being captured are truly reflective of what’s going on,” said Helen Wynter, who has been a registered nurse for the past 17 years. “So many people just feel like if they had the symptoms, so just stay home for five days and not bother to get tested.”

Wynter says the capacity they have seen in the emergency room in the last week has been “astounding.”

“We can’t handle emerging patients because all of our beds are taken up with patients admitted waiting for beds, and there are no beds, which means you’re sitting in a chair feeling just awful,” said Wynter. 

“Long backups coupled with a nursing shortage means that we cannot handle the sixth wave.”

The province has attempted to address the nursing shortage by introducing a $5,000 retention bonus for eligible nurses, but Wynter says that does not go far enough to address the issue.

“It does nothing to bring anybody back to the job, and $5,000, considering the inflation and the wage cap mismatch, we view it as an insult.”

Bill 124, which caps public workers’ wages at 1 per cent over three years, has also been a point of contention between health care workers and the Ontario government.

Nurses’ unions have repeatedly asked for the legislation to be repealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also say the retention bonus is only a band-aid fix and not a real solution to fix the staffing crisis.

“We’re so exhausted. I can’t work the hours I’ve worked before. I just don’t have the adrenaline because you knock yourself out,” said Wynter. “We are exhausted. People are leaving frontline bedside care in droves because we’re human. We’re not robots. We can’t keep this up. We just can’t.”

“There’s just no quiet days. There are not ever any quiet days it is. It is impossible to give the kind of care that we like to give,” said Wynter.

Wynter is a part of an advocacy group called “Nurse with a sign 416,” which runs an Instagram and Twitter account to bring awareness to nurses’ feelings over the last two years.

She said following an Instagram poll on their account, which has over 16,000 followers, over 75 per cent of those who responded were looking to leave the profession.

“[Another] study verified those numbers in a larger population sample. We really can’t go on with nurses making the same across the board. It doesn’t matter how many specialties or critical care certifications they have.”

“It’s impossible to feel good about the job you did because it’s never enough. For every one thing you do. There are 25 things more waiting.”

She said not only are they feeling burnt out by the amount of work that needs to be done, seeing so many people sick can be extremely difficult on their mental health.

“To bear witness to the human suffering that we have to bear witness to that we know is so unjust. It’s too much. There’s no time to get over that. There’s no time to metabolize it and be able to come back all fresh.”

The fact that the government has removed the mask mandate only compounds the issue, said Wynter.

“Ignoring the nursing crisis, ignoring a situation or ignoring a crisis is an attempt to normalize it. You’re not going to wonderfully make this go away just by ignoring it. And there’s still long COVID … It’s unpredictable. That doesn’t go away.”

She added she and all her coworkers are still wearing masks despite the mandate being dropped on March 21.

Wynter said the staffing shortage is not only affected by the status of COVID-19.

“If COVID magically disappeared, the sixth wave or not, we’re still in crisis, and it’s not going anywhere. You can open as many hospital beds as you want. There are no nurses, just ask them. And you can put as much money as you want towards clearing the surgical backlog, but there’s still no nurses.”