Casual nurses resign en masse from Health Sciences Centre program for sexual assault survivors
CBC
Almost one-third of the casual nursing pool for a sexual assault examiner program at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre resigned unexpectedly on Tuesday, health-care officials said, leaving the hospital working to ensure the services are still available when people need them.
The resignations come amid concerns the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program has been unable to deliver on plans to deliver 24/7 coverage.
Dr. Manon Pelletier, HSC's chief medical officer, said Tuesday that officials had no warning four of the 13 casual nurses in the sexual assault nurse examiner program would be resigning. The program also has seven full-time positions, six of which are currently filled.
The program is made up of specialized forensic nurses who collect evidence that can be used in sexual assault investigations. Those nurses mainly work on a casual basis and often have jobs in other areas of the health system.
Hospital leadership is now working to fill in the gaps potentially left by the recent resignations, said Jennifer Cumpsty, executive director of acute health services at the Health Sciences Centre.
That includes encouraging remaining casual nurses to pick up available shifts, lining up an interim physician coverage model, working to expand the program's casual nursing pool and continuing to support recent hires into the program as they complete education and training, she said.
"While this is disappointing, particularly within an area of patient care that we are making every effort to improve, we want our patients to know that we are quickly putting coverage plans in place to ensure availability of these services," Cumpsty said alongside Pelletier at a Zoom news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The update comes less than two months after the sexual assault program ran without in-person staff for a 40-hour weekend period, which left advocates worried that survivors may have been turned away.
Earlier in the day, Health Minister Audrey Gordon raised the issue of the resignations with reporters at the legislative building, saying she was saddened by the news.
"I want Manitobans to know that as your health minister, I find this to be unacceptable," Gordon said, adding the province pledged money almost a year ago to fund full-time positions for the program, one of which is not currently filled.
"I expect resolution and nothing less from our health system leaders.
"We need to understand — what are the issues? Why would, in one day, at the same time, a group of nurses resign? And I will be getting to the bottom of that."
Nurses raised concerns in January that the program was understaffed because it hadn't yet received the provincial funding promised last year.
Neither Gordon nor hospital officials could provide a reason for the nurses' resignations.
