Beleaguered nurses feel forgotten as holiday restrictions also pinch

Saying their "dead from fatugue," health-care workers hold a die-in during a demonstration outside Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal on May 27, 2020.

If Quebecers are taking the hit from the cancellation of family gatherings at Christmas, many essential workers, such as nurses, had other concerns.

Nurses who agreed to talk to Canadian Press complained about being moved from from one health-care environment to another, the difficult working conditions that persist and the feeling of being forgotten by the government.

The situation changed for many Quebecers on Thursday when Premier François Legault withdrew permission for up to 10 people in red zones to gather for Christmas dinner between Dec. 24 and Dec. 27. Under the new regulations, only people living at the same address will be able to celebrate Christmas together.

For many essential workers, the relaxed rules were moot because Quebecers were asked to quarantine a week before and after their family dinner. There was no way for nurses and grocery clerks to isolate themselves and work from home.

“No one could afford that,” said a nurse from the Magdalen Islands.

For Annick Dumont, a nurse from Quebec City, the issue had been settled for a long time — and had nothing to do with government permission or prohibition. She and her spouse, a paramedic, made the decision two months ago to stay at home with their two children.

Jocelyne Auger, who works for the CISSS in Lower St. Lawrence, will celebrate only with members of her household, and her colleagues in the intensive-care unit are doing the same.

Isabelle Renaud, a palliative-care nurse from the Montérégie, will do nothing for Christmas, she says, “out of solidarity for her colleagues.

“It’s hard enough for those who work in the hospital and in CHSLD with all the understaffing issues,” Renaud said. “I don’t want to add to their workload by sending one of my relatives to the hospital.”

Laurence, who did not want her last name used because she feared for her job, is an intensive-care nurse at a hospital in Montreal.

She had already decided not to visit her family out of respect for the health-care workers. But when the government proposed gathering with the “before and after quarantine” condition — which prevented all essential workers from celebrating as a family, “it undermined morale, which was already on the ground. It was the icing on the cake. We’re told we’re guardian angels, but it looks like (the government) has completely forgotten us.”

Laurence noted her unit was emptied of colleagues, who were sent to the COVID zone. She recognized the hospital is understaffed and, by allowing such harsh working conditions to continue, the government is doing little to attract young people to the profession.

Pascale Bouchard was moved from her family medicine day group to a CHSLD with a minimal notice and assigned to night and evening shifts. That forced her to find someone to look after her three children.

A ministerial order adopted at the beginning of the pandemic allowed nurses to be moved from one place and schedule to another, and to cancel their vacations.

One nurse said she has not worked in long-term care for 13 years and says she received only one day of training.

“I’m afraid I’m going to make a mistake and, if that happens, I’m the one who’s going to get hurt, I can lose my license to practice,” she said. “It’s not going to a CHSLD that bothers me, it’s not feeling respected. All that keeps me in CHSLD is the seniors who have the right to have dignified care.

“We held the fort during the first wave, and we didn’t have a break,” she added. “We are always asked for more. I see the CIUSS as a vampire. I am on the ground and it still takes my blood.”