Nurse in Sudbury, Ont., resigns after 40-year career because she felt 'very unsafe'

Wendy McNeil dedicated 40 years of her life to nursing.

On Dec. 12, she left her job as a critical care nurse at Sudbury's Health Sciences North in northern Ontario.

"I resigned my position because I felt very unsafe and unable to give the quality of care, and to actually give the bare minimum standard of care to the patients that I was entrusted to take care of," McNeil said in an interview.

McNeil said the COVID-19 pandemic has put added pressure on a health-care system that's already under-resourced.  

In an open letter on her Facebook page, she describes a situation where she and her colleagues had to take on the roles of receptionists, personal-care workers, dietitians, physiotherapists, social workers and even spiritual workers on top of their regular duties.

McNeil said many of her young colleagues have gone back to school and have no plans of returning to the profession.

"I remember being six years old and knowing that I was going to be a nurse," she said. "So to have that part of your life feel like it's being ripped away, that's how it feels like to me — like a Band-Aid that's being ripped off." 

The Ontario Nurses' Association has said there are 20,000 nursing vacancies in the province.

It's not just been the pandemic that has caused a lot of the issues that are happening. Yes, the pandemic has really tipped the scale, but this stuff has always been there.- Wendy McNeil, retired nurse

McNeil has worked in Sudbury, Timmins and Alberta, and said the systemic issues she witnessed in Sudbury are present across Canada.

She said health-care resources are further strained by an aging cohort of patients with more than one health issue, along with the opioid epidemic.

"It's not just been the pandemic that has caused a lot of the issues that are happening," McNeil said. 

"Yes, the pandemic has really tipped the scale, but this stuff has always been there."

McNeil said successive governments, at both the provincial and federal levels, have failed to properly fund the health-care system and support its workforce.

Efforts to recruit nurses

In an email to CBC News, Anna Miller, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health, said the province plans to recruit more than 5,000 registered nurses and registered practical nurses by 2025-26.

"Our government values the crucial contribution that Ontario's nurses make to the health system and the patient care they provide, which is why we're working to add more nurses to our system to support the existing workforce in providing the best possible care to Ontarians," Miller said.

To reach its recruitment goals, Miller said, the province has invested $35 million to add spaces for 1,130 new practical nurses and 870 registered nurses in Ontario's university and college nursing programs. Those new spaces have been created for the 2021-22 academic year.

The province is also providing $1,500 in tuition support for nursing students who will dedicate at least four years of service in an eligible, underserved Ontario community.

Miller said the Community Commitment Program for Nurses offers a $10,000 incentive for those who make a one-year commitment to practise in an Ontario hospital, long-term care home, or home and community care agency in high need.

CBC News contacted Health Sciences North for more information about its current staffing levels, but did not receive a response by deadline.