As the anniversary for March 11 anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic has come and gone, nurses across Canada are at their breaking point. We are exhausted, burned out – and angry.

Nurses are on the frontlines of the pandemic and our health-care system every day. We see its problems in brutal detail, and we have the experience to know what’s needed to fix them. We have repeatedly called on decision-makers to address critical staffing shortages and provide basic protections to keep workers safe.

We continue to be disregarded, and the result has been devastating.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the number of COVID-19 cases among health workers has tripled since July 2020. As of January 15, 65,920 health workers have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, representing 9.5 percent of all infections in Canada. More than 40 health workers are known to have died from the illness.

In our troubled long-term care system, insufficient staffing and safety protocols have contributed to a national tragedy. About 25,000 health-care worker infections are in long-term care. More than 14,000 vulnerable residents have died from COVID-19, representing about 70 percent of all deaths in Canada.

It didn’t have to be this way.

As early as January of last year, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions began urging governments across Canada to heed the lessons of SARS and adopt a precautionary approach. This meant assuming the virus was airborne and protecting health-care workers – potential vectors of transmission – accordingly.

Despite similar efforts by unions across the country, health-care workers have been put at unacceptable risk, with implications for their families, patients, and communities. Most health-care workers, even those caring for COVID-19 patients, were only provided flimsy surgical masks, and in many jurisdictions, masks were reused until they were soiled and damaged. Faced with supply issues, N95 respirators were often locked away.

It took the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) until January 2021 to acknowledge what unions and many experts have said all along. Health-care workers are at risk of airborne transmission when in close proximity to an infected person. Yet PHAC still does not require health-care workers in COVID-19 units and “hot zones” to wear protection from airborne transmission, such as N95 respirators.

Similarly, provinces across Canada have failed to update their guidance to adequately reflect what we now know about the virus and how its spreads.

Only Quebec has followed the scientific evidence to its natural conclusion: As of February 11, 2021, Quebec requires health-care workers in COVID-19 hot zones to wear an N95 respirator or superior level of protection.

As new variants circulate in Canada, dramatically increasing the rate of transmission, burned out health-care workers are under even more pressure. Without action, health staffing, which is already in short supply, could become depleted even further.

We must not let this happen.

We know from experts and evidence that there is a desperate need for more staff, not less. The long-standing cycle of budget cuts, short staffing, and higher workloads has eroded the health care workforce and quality of patient care. A major investment in the retention and recruitment of nurses is needed now or it is likely we will see an exodus from the profession as burnout takes its toll.

It’s time for governments across Canada to take their heads out of the sand and show their respect and appreciation for health care workers. A good first step would be to act on our calls for better workplace safety and safe staffing.

Had decision-makers heeded the nurses’ warnings prior to the pandemic, perhaps many more lives could have been saved.

Linda Silas is a nurse and president, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

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