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Several Auckland DHB nurses said they have experienced burnout in 2020 (file photo).
Staff shortages at the Auckland District Board of Health are putting lives at risk, fed up nurses say.
Several nurses from different departments, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs, have raised the issue with the New Zealand Nurses Organization.
Documents displayed to Stuff showed that in the past three months, more than 250 unsafe staff incident reports had been completed at the district health board, which runs Auckland City Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Center.
“I am concerned about the new graduates because you can see in their faces that they are already suffering from exhaustion,” said a nurse.
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The stress nurses are under is so severe that patients have started talking about it, the nurse said, and departments are not hiring new staff.
“Patients can see how busy we are, how stressed we are. Usually we can hide it, but it has become too much. “
A nurse from a different department said the staffing had been “horrendous” since the start of the Covid-19 response.
“It feels like there is nothing to solve the problem. We have more people using sick leave due to fatigue, we are supposed to have six nurses on each shift, but we are lucky to have five right now.
“It is putting patients at risk.”
Since several wards are experiencing staffing problems, nurses are often “imprisoned” to work in other understaffed wards, he said.
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A nurse said there has been an increase in patient falls in her department, which she believes is due to staff shortages. (File photo)
“Sometimes they send us to neighborhoods where we don’t have any experience. They put us in situations where we feel like we can’t say no.”
A third nurse said that the DHB had not taken any action, despite many nurses asking for help from the staff.
“We feel insecure. Our sick calls are not covered and we often do not have our breaks.
“Many nurses no longer want to come to work.”
Another nurse said her department had completed 68 incident reports due to staffing issues in 2020.
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
Auckland DHB is responsible for the management of Auckland City Hospital.
New Zealand Nurses Organization organizer Justine Sachs said the healthcare system is prioritizing financial and budgetary goals over patient and staff safety.
“The systematic lack of funding for healthcare has led to overwhelmed hospitals and nurses struggling to meet the needs of patients safely,” he said.
“This pandemic has shown how important it is to have a health system with sufficient resources. It’s just not good enough. “
An Auckland DHB spokeswoman said capacity is closely monitored to ensure safe levels of staffing.
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Currently, there is no freeze on hiring new staff, says the DHB. (File photo)
“We encourage our nurses to make an entry into our incident reporting and risk management system, so that we can understand the system problems that are occurring and learn from them.”
Auckland DHB Director of Nursing Margaret Dotchin acknowledged that 2020 had been a difficult year for staff.
“Our hospitals are currently very busy due to increased emergency department presentations and admissions, and as we work to catch up on elective surgeries that were impacted by Covid-19.”
“The public can rest assured that if they or their loved ones need immediate hospital care, we have plans to provide a high level of care.”
STUFF
The Government has announced the second tranche of funding to the Auckland DHB.
Dotchin said that about 80 nursing graduates will start at DHB in January and February.
“We are actively recruiting to increase the size of our nursing office to help manage unplanned leave.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said that secure staffing is a key priority for the ministry, and a secure staffing agreement was signed in 2018.
“The focus of the deal’s work is to increase and support the domestic workforce. It’s really important that we work together with the whole industry in other ways that we can attract and retain nurses in the industry. “
