Staffing levels stabilizing at RIH after hospital cuts back on redeploying nurses

KAMLOOPS — The staffing crisis at Royal Inland Hospital, while ongoing, really started to pick up at the end of April. Doctors and nurses were also speaking about a toxic work environment.

In May, the pediatric ward was closed for a weekend and newborn babies were transferred to Kelowna.

Hospital administration says it has listened and is making changes.

“We’ve listened to staff. We’re really are trying to stop re-deploying them. That means taking them from their area of work and moving to another,” said interim executive director at Royal Inland Hospital Gerry Desilets. “What we’ve tried to do is actually bring the patients to them rather than bring the nurses to the patients.”

RIH says redeploying caused major stress among the staff, and a month after implementing the new model, it’s made a big difference, especially in the intensive care unit, which has been hit the hardest by staffing shortages.

“We’ve definitely seen where we were at 60 per cent staffing levels, moving up to the 70-80 per cent staffing on every shift, so it’s been a huge improvement with people even coming back to work — from casual positions to take regular positions,” said Desilets. “There has been someone move back from Merritt to take a position with our intensive care unit.”

Overall, nurses and other healthcare workers are already picking up more shifts in advance, knowing the staffing levels have improved. RIH is also providing more support to the registered nurses on shift.

“Actually supporting with care aids and LPNs, or licensed practical nurses, to provide other supports. We know there’s an RN shortage throughout Canada and through the world, so we’re trying to look at ways we can support staff with other support teams that can still provide the care but allow the RNs to do the really focused work,” he said.