I sat in a St. John's emergency room for 7 hours — here's what I saw

 "It's crazy back there," the nurse says as she points her thumb toward the triage area, where about five people with an assortment of injuries wait in line.

The two middle-aged women sitting to the left of me look at each other. One of them asks the nurse if the emergency room is short-staffed.

"We always are," the nurse replies.

It's around 9 a.m. in the emergency room at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's. As I turn my head to look at the dozens of exhausted faces around me, I can tell it's going to be a long day for many of them.

It's no secret that there's a shortage of healthcare workers in Newfoundland and Labrador. In September, Eastern Health asked people to stay away from its St. John's emergency rooms unless "absolutely necessary." The provincial government has even used Come Home Year branding in attempts to bring health care professionals back to the province.

Due to these shortages, there's also been a lot of chatter about the long wait times in hospital emergency rooms. To see what this experience is like for patients, I spent seven hours in the Health Sciences Centre's ER waiting room.

When I sit down, I lean my head back and close my eyes for a moment, settling in for what's bound to be a long day. At least the chairs are surprisingly comfy.

I hear the sound of crutches hitting the white tiled floor. A middle-aged man hobbles in with a swollen right foot that's both shoeless and sockless, and it drags on the floor as he manoeuvres around, trying to find a seat. In the time I spent in the ER, I'd watch this man limp out of the room to see a doctor and then back to his seat at least three times.

Another middle-aged man gets up from his chair and finds a new place to rest, twisting to lean his upper body against the plexiglass barrier to his right. His left eye is completely shut, covered by a bulging black and purple bruise. Scrapes and scabs are scattered across his nose and upper face.

There's about 20 to 25 of us sitting in blue, vinyl chairs, some of which are separated by plexiglass. The room is warm and stuffy.

The only sounds in the room are ringing phones, nurses periodically calling patients' names and lots of coughing. There's a TV mounted in the upper left corner of the room. CNN is the only channel playing the entire day — the newscast is muted, with subtitles scrolling across the screen.

I look over at the television. The headline reads, 'surge of RSV cases leaving pediatric hospitals overwhelmed.'

Fitting, I think to myself as I look away from the TV.

I suddenly hear music.