COVID-19 Manitoba

[Hecate]

I recently spent the night in Selkirk emergency. I was the only one there. I waited seven hours to see a doctor. I was the only one there. Watched a nurse sleep behind the desk. Literally snoring. I wish I would have taken a video. She did nothing the entire time I was there. But so overworked right. A week later in the paper massive article about how overworked the emergency is. Several months prior to my stay I needed stitches. Sat there waiting and watched two people go around filling hand sanitizers. Two people to do that job. One person pushed a cart while the other filled the sanitizers. They talked about the cottage the entire time. Got to sit and listen to a nurse go on about her two pensions too. My grandma spent the last year of her life in a hospital. I have seen abusive nurses, neglectful nurses, and ignorant nurses. I had a nurse throw a pillow at me and tell me to help my grandmother with her pillows because “nothing she could ever do was right” there’s lots of problems in our healthcare system and it doesn’t stem from “lack of pay” it’s lack of oversight, lack of accountability, you can’t always keep crying “we’re understaffed” while people working at the other end of the hospital are playing cards and having naps.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Hecate

I recently spent the night in Selkirk emergency. I was the only one there. I waited seven hours to see a doctor. I was the only one there. Watched a nurse sleep behind the desk. Literally snoring. I wish I would have taken a video. She did nothing the entire time I was there. But so overworked right. A week later in the paper massive article about how overworked the emergency is. Several months prior to my stay I needed stitches. Sat there waiting and watched two people go around filling hand sanitizers. Two people to do that job. One person pushed a cart while the other filled the sanitizers. They talked about the cottage the entire time. Got to sit and listen to a nurse go on about her two pensions too. My grandma spent the last year of her life in a hospital. I have seen abusive nurses, neglectful nurses, and ignorant nurses. I had a nurse throw a pillow at me and tell me to help my grandmother with her pillows because “nothing she could ever do was right” there’s lots of problems in our healthcare system and it doesn’t stem from “lack of pay” it’s lack of oversight, lack of accountability, you can’t always keep crying “we’re understaffed” while people working at the other end of the hospital are playing cards and having naps.

Thanks for sharing and similar to what I and others have experienced, nurses are not overworked it’s just now during this pandemic a lot of them actually have to do the work. Like everything run by govt. there is a lack of accountability especially with the union attitude developed during the 17 year run of the speNDP a regime where unions ruled the workplace and management sat idly.

[zalf]

A decade or so ago, I had a summer clerical job working in a Winnipeg ER. People would get mad at me and the triage nurse all the time because they'd be sitting alone in the waiting room, and they could see empty beds when the doors to the treatment area would open. These beds were held in reserve for cardiac emergencies, i.e. people who will die right now without aid. All the other treatment rooms had doors closed for privacy.

One time, no joke or exaggeration, we had a couple come in when there happened to be lots of beds open, so they were told they'd be seen immediately and they were annoyed about that. They said they were big supporters of the PCs, and wanted to be able to share some horror stories about medical care under the NDP. Maybe I met one of the more prolific posters on the forum all those years ago?

[buzzg]

About 5 years ago I went to Misericordia ER cuz I sliced my finger open very bad (tip: do not hold an avocado in your hand and try to stab the pit out with a large knife). I was told it would be 6-8 hours to see a doctor to get stitches. That was absolutely absurd as it probably would have taken 5 minute to stitch it and send me on my way. My neighbour was a doctor so I left and he just glued it shut for me. I def hit a nerve because I still have no feeling on the inside of my finger.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I'm not a nurse nor do I have any in my close family so I wouldn't consider myself biased... but nurses do make a lot of their money working overtime. So it's not as though they're getting outsized salaries for nothing, they are out there on the hospital floors working.

A large number of nurses work .2, meaning they are scheduled for one shift a week. Any extra shifts they pick up they are paid overtime. So they could be getting paid overtime 80% of the time.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by Riverman

A large number of nurses work .2, meaning they are scheduled for one shift a week. Any extra shifts they pick up they are paid overtime. So they could be getting paid overtime 80% of the time.

Nope. Only paid overtime if they are mandated to work a double shift without a rest period or exceed a full FTE in a pay period. It's a feature of mismanagement that mandating is relied on so much to maintain a basic level of staffing with the excess cost that comes with it.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Riverman

A large number of nurses work .2, meaning they are scheduled for one shift a week. Any extra shifts they pick up they are paid overtime. So they could be getting paid overtime 80% of the time.

This is untrue. A part-time nurse gets paid overtime only if they stay longer than their scheduled shift. They have to pick up beyond full time in order to get paid overtime for an extra shift that is not adjacent to a shift they are already working.

The collective agreements are available online: https://manitobanurses.ca/collective-agreements

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by Riverman

A large number of nurses work .2, meaning they are scheduled for one shift a week. Any extra shifts they pick up they are paid overtime. So they could be getting paid overtime 80% of the time.

I believe this is/was true in Alberta, not sure if it is still offered now though. This may have been the case there but definitely is not the case in Manitoba.

[bomberjet]

What a sad state of affairs. Pretty common tone these days in a lot of ways.

So you attended the shitty Selkirk ER one time and complained because the doctor was probably at home sleeping. That's the long term problem of any ER outside of Winnipeg. Just go to Winnipeg if you need help and live in Selkirk. That's the current solution.

What about the nurses working 24 hours straight because there's no one else to work the shift? With my son in the NICU, that happened all the time. A nurse working 22 hours straight and now taking care of tiny infants who could literally die at any moment. At the time it was still due to Brian P's shake up. Nurses weren't available.

But damn it, screw those nurses. Brian Pallister is so right for taking a hard line on health care!

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by dmacc

I believe this is/was true in Alberta, not sure if it is still offered now though. This may have been the case there but definitely is not the case in Manitoba.

A few years ago there was a campaign by employers to eliminate the .2 and .3 rotations. Those were mostly in place to fill weekend vacancies. Everyone (outside of SBGH because they have a different contract) work 50% weekends and holidays. The .2, .3, and .4 rotations were there to cover the shortages. Now, most of those have been eliminated. The mandate a few years ago was nothing less than a .4 with .5 and up being optimal. However, the FT rotations are mostly garbage. I used to work one and it was 7 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off and then 5 on and 2 off. It was awful because I also worked D-N rotations so you were flipping between days and nights and it really screwed with your sleep cycle.

All of this to say, that while we do have shortages, the nursing workforce has not done a good job of optimizing EFTs. Most nurses I know don't want that FT rotation- they would rather work a .8 or .9 and pick up when they wanted. It would create less burnout when you're already mandating FT nurses to stay and I can tell you- it could turn into a huge fight at times arguing over who would stay and who would go.

And yes, anything worked beyond your mandated shift is considered OT irrespective of your eft. So, if you work and 8 hour shift and are mandated to stay, that's considered OT. Same with 12 hour shifts.

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by Jammon

A few years ago there was a campaign by employers to eliminate the .2 and .3 rotations. Those were mostly in place to fill weekend vacancies. Everyone (outside of SBGH because they have a different contract) work 50% weekends and holidays. The .2, .3, and .4 rotations were there to cover the shortages. Now, most of those have been eliminated. The mandate a few years ago was nothing less than a .4 with .5 and up being optimal. However, the FT rotations are mostly garbage. I used to work one and it was 7 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off and then 5 on and 2 off. It was awful because I also worked D-N rotations so you were flipping between days and nights and it really screwed with your sleep cycle.

All of this to say, that while we do have shortages, the nursing workforce has not done a good job of optimizing EFTs. Most nurses I know don't want that FT rotation- they would rather work a .8 or .9 and pick up when they wanted. It would create less burnout when you're already mandating FT nurses to stay and I can tell you- it could turn into a huge fight at times arguing over who would stay and who would go.

And yes, anything worked beyond your mandated shift is considered OT irrespective of your eft. So, if you work and 8 hour shift and are mandated to stay, that's considered OT. Same with 12 hour shifts.

My comment was in response to Riverman saying that a Nurse working a .2(1 Shift a Week), could pick up a shift on a different day and be paid overtime for that work. I have heard of that being the case in Albert but I can't confirm. Manitoba does not have this available at all as far as I am aware.

You are correct that an employee working a .2 or any other EFT would still be entitled to OT if working greater than their 8 hour shift(Likely only if the next shift is concurrent to the one just worked) or they work greater than 40 hours a week as labour law requires. This is all correct unless of course the CBA stipulates otherwise.

[Ando]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Let me ask you, does the truth hurt this bad?

$2B from the Fed's annually in transfer payments and some of you clowns want the MB govt. to spend even more!

You make up your own truth to fit your narrative. You fear people who don't think like you and who look different from you, and it manifests itself in hatred. This has nothing to do with any kind of substantive discussion.

[dennis]

Originally Posted by dmacc

My comment was in response to Riverman saying that a Nurse working a .2(1 Shift a Week), could pick up a shift on a different day and be paid overtime for that work. I have heard of that being the case in Albert but I can't confirm. Manitoba does not have this available at all as far as I am aware.

You are correct that an employee working a .2 or any other EFT would still be entitled to OT if working greater than their 8 hour shift(Likely only if the next shift is concurrent to the one just worked) or they work greater than 40 hours a week as labour law requires. This is all correct unless of course the CBA stipulates otherwise.

Or if your shifts are 11.63 hours and you work beyond that. Some ot is 1.5 times if you are less than 3h and 2x if past that

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by dennis

Or if your shifts are 11.63 hours and you work beyond that. Some ot is 1.5 times if you are less than 3h and 2x if past that

However the CBA addresses this is how it will be applied. If the CBA does not address it then Labour Law would determine how it is applied.

[xubiqtss]

Brian emerges from the shadows and makes one last desperate move to save his re-election campaign

The fact that the vaccine cards were useful for about 2 hours is going to rightfully upset a lot of people

The idea that they're still in a vaccine-push but have just removed the only incentive for most of those still unvaccinated seems completely bonkers

Not to mention the fact that they've shifted responsibility for enforcement to individual business owners. Restaurants are livid, with good reason. Before they could just follow the government protocols, but now they need to either enforce their own restrictions and suffer the wrath of one group, or vice versa. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Awful, confused leadership.

[Festivus]

Yeah the MB government is definitely under water in terms of public opinion on their handling of the pandemic:

[digitboy]

I cant believe Quebec is at 81% of satisfaction. The worst province by far. I think they have carefully choose who they are surveying. Don't trust the surveys, especially when they are from Léger.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by digitboy

I cant believe Quebec is at 81% of satisfaction. The worst province by far. I think they have carefully choose who they are surveying. Don't trust the surveys, especially when they are from Léger.

The poll meets all scientific requirements, and was representative of the population. Previous polls have shown the same thing—people in Quebec are pleased with their government's handling of the pandemic.

That doesn't mean the government has done a good job, of course. SK is also pleased with Scott Moe's handling, even though he hasn't done a good job. A least in Quebec's case, most of the deaths appeared earlier in the pandemic, when less was known (especially as it spread through care homes) Places that have had later large surges (like MB and ON) deserve far worse criticism since by then we knew enough on how to control the virus.

[bomberjet]

Aug. 7. The free for all begins.

https://twitter.com/ScottBilleck/sta...93038103183366

[esquire]

We're basically making all the same mistakes that we made last year... spiking the ball at the 5 yard line instead of actually getting it into the end zone.

I can understand the impetus for loosening the restrictions to some extent, but why get rid of the mask mandate just as this delta variant starts flaring up and kids still aren't vaccinated?