Sandee Michalchuk says it has never been as difficult to be a nurse in Saskatchewan as it is right now. With more than four decades of experience as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in Yorkton, she describes a profession in crisis.
'Never Seen It So Bad'
“It’s exhausting. You do not get breaks. You’re working short all the time,” said Michalchuk. “Some nurses don’t have the supplies they need. Some nurses are working by themselves with no support system.”
Speaking in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building during a CUPE Local 5430 news conference on Friday, Michalchuk offered a stark warning: “In the 44 years that I’ve worked, I have never seen it so bad.”
CUPE Local 5430 Demands Action
CUPE Local 5430, which represents LPNs in Saskatchewan, held the news conference following a Regina forum on nursing retention. The forum brought together nurses, union leaders, and health experts to address the growing problem.
Darla Rugland, an LPN with 20 years of experience, also travelled from Yorkton to participate. She said the forum, organized in partnership with the Association of Professional Nurses of Saskatchewan, successfully highlighted the issue and she hopes legislators take its message to heart.
“If we want nurses to stay, we need to fix the conditions that are pushing them away,” Rugland said. “We need the stakeholders, the decision-makers, to listen to what we’re saying.”
Provincial Government Responds
Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill posted on social media about attending the forum, noting on Facebook that it was “encouraging to be in a room full of nurses focused on solutions.”
In an email statement responding to a request for comment on nurse retention issues, Cockrill highlighted the province’s Health Human Resources Action Plan and the newly revived Patients First Plan presented this spring. The HHR plan invested $44.7 million into retention last year, and the Patients’ First Plan includes a pledge to offer nursing graduate retention bursaries.
Retention is a focus for the nursing task force that recently convened with Saskatchewan’s health unions, including CUPE.
Union Criticizes Recruitment Focus
However, CUPE Local 5430 president Bashir Jalloh said the provincial government’s plans seem more focused on recruitment without matching retention efforts. He described it as “opening the front door for somebody to come in and opening the back door for another to leave.”
Wages a Key Issue
For Michalchuk, wages are at the “heart of the retention crisis.” She shared the story of a nurse with nine years of experience who recently quit to take a job in retail.
“She said she’d miss us all and her patients, but she went into retail because she just can’t take it anymore,” Michalchuk said.
