Who Needs a Nurse?
Everyone.
Who Needs a Nurse?
Isn’t it obvious? Sadly, NO.
The lack of urgency and the lack of action taken to address the province’s nursing shortage suggests that New Brunswick’s decision makers just don’t get it. They don’t understand that they need nurses. They don’t grasp the magnitude of the issue.
We need this fundamental question answered …
so that EVERYONE understands Who Needs a Nurse?
New Brunswick Needs Nurses. The Healthcare System Needs Nurses.
Everyone Needs a Nurse.
New Brunswick’s healthcare system is in crisis. With a massive nursing shortage, deteriorating working conditions for vital healthcare professionals and unfair expectations placed on nurses, we must demand change now!
The current healthcare situation in NB is in no way sustainable and without immediate change will put patients, nurses, and the province in further danger.
Currently, there are close to 1,000 vacant nursing positions in New Brunswick. More than 700 nurses are due to retire by 2024. Nurses are leaving the profession every day because of working conditions. The hole they leave keeps getting bigger. The gap is widening! Without concrete steps, even more New Brunswickers will not receive the care they need. That is why NBNU is speaking out and asking you to lend your voice to this call to action.
Nurses are stretched extremely thin. They are working long and unsafe hours, facing immense pressure to meet patient care commitments and sacrificing their personal lives and wellbeing.
More than ever, our nurses are struggling with their mental and physical health as a result of working for a system that isn’t working for anyone. A profession they once loved and the work they used to look forward to has become a daily struggle. Nursing students aren’t staying in New Brunswick and recruiting new nurses is near impossible.
The Dark Reality
As New Brunswick’s healthcare systems becomes more and more strained and little action is taken, nurses in the province begin to dwindle in numbers and in spirit. This is today’s reality:
84%
Nurses in NB report that their mental health has deteriorated over the past three years.
71%
Nurses in NB report that their physical health has deteriorated over the past three years.
55.42% of Nurses in NB sought mental health support just this past year.
56%
90%
needed the help because of unrealistic work demands.
81%
Nurses in NB report feeling high to very high stress/burnout.
64%
Nurses in NB believe their job stress will only increase.
92% NB nurses believe patient care will continue to decline if conditions do not change.
JUST ONE MORE DAY. I CAN DO IT FOR JUST ONE MORE DAY.
Right...?
How can New Brunswick recruit more nurses?
89.91%
Nurses in NB report feeling not rested even at the beginning of a new shift.
In 2021, Nurses in New Brunswick worked well over 400,000 hours of overtime… in order to keep the system operational. This has been happening for years and only promises to get worse!
So, Who Needs a Nurse?
How could anyone even wonder about this?
The easy answer is: