Ontario's hospital unions are urging the provincial government to implement nurse-to-patient ratios.
A study commissioned by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and the Canadian Union of Public Employees found ratios save lives, improve patient outcomes, and alleviate staffing concerns in hospitals.
"The nurse-to-patient ratio has a dramatic effect on things like the death rates of patients, on medical errors, on hospital-acquired infections, on readmissions, on length of stay," said report author Dr. Jim Brophy. "All of which has an important effect and impact on cost and on patient well-being."
Based on data from the College of Nurses of Ontario, there are 16,437 licensed but non-practising nurses in the province. The authors of the study believe many of these nurses would return to the workforce if there were better working conditions.
"Every day, we're being forced to make choices that go against everything we believe as caregivers," said Rachel Fleming, a registered practical nurse from Peterborough. "When you can't give medication on time, when a patient goes without a bath or the comfort of someone simply listening to them, when you can't even answer a call bell because you're torn between other patients in desperate need - it breaks your spirit. I know so many incredible nurses who walked away not because they stopped caring, but because the pain of not being able to care properly became unbearable."
The OCHU-CUPE will be proposing nurse-patient ratios in central bargaining that starts next month.