Epidemic and Burnout: Why Nurses Choose to Stay

Nurses who are tired of seeing the negative image of their profession over and over again want to share the positive part that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought them.

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Over the past year many tired or frustrated nurses have decided to leave the profession, while others have confirmed their passion instead.

“The fun was that we were always a tough team to support each other. One day, if someone, if he’s less healthy, he can no longer continue, we will try to put him back together, we will compensate that person,” said nurse Alexandra Dempsey at the Institute of Cardiology. Pulmonology of Quebec (IUCPQ).

However, she admitted that she was shaken by the epidemic.

“A lot of pain, a lot of stress. It’s something. I think it recognized all of us,” she told TVA Nouvelles.

For Martin Duclos, a nurse at IUCPQ, COVID-19 was synonymous with work, but despite all that, he never intended to leave the ship.

“We saw people getting tired, people dying, but we were all there together,” he said.

Domitille Bouchard, another nurse at IUCPQ, believes that this solidarity and work environment is essential for nurses to work effectively.

She was pleased to have done less compulsory overtime (TSO) while doing her job at the University Institute.

“In two and a half years, I got OSI. She said it was morally easy to know that you would come back to your post at 7:30 in the morning and leave at 3:45 in the afternoon.

The nurses from IUCPQ who met with TVA Nouvelles hope that the health crisis will not dampen the enthusiasm of the next generation who are thinking of choosing this profession.

Faced with an observed shortage across Quebec, the Legalt government wants to hire more than 4,300 nurses.

– Based on information from Cariane Bourassa