Welcome to the World of the Healthcare Professional

Quebec’s healthcare system has been criticized in recent news reports, but few people get a chance to hear what service assistants experience on a day-to-day basis and how these issues affect their work.

News outlets in Montreal have been covering the recent explosion in the number of emergency room patients. Many hospitals are dealing with overcrowding at over 100 percent capacity, St. Mary’s Hospital recording the highest level of overcrowding at 187 percent capacity.

Monica, an emergency room nurse’s assistant at St. Mary’s, can see the origin of the problem. "It’s mostly older people living in nursing homes or residences," she says. Many of the residences for the elderly are sending their patients straight to the emergency room for ailments that could easily be taken care of at those facilities. "For every little thing, they send them to the hospital," she says. "We’re overflowed with stuff like that."

Despite the current spike in emergency room occupancy across the island of Montreal, service assistants in all areas of the healthcare system are concerned with other, more long-term issues.

Lou Di Scala is president of the CSN union at Catherine Booth Hospital. He represents service assistants, which include nurses, nurse’s assistants and orderlies. When asked what service assistants were most concerned with, his answer is immediate. "For sure: contracting out," he says. "A lot of agency nurses are paid better than regular nurses, but the problem is that when you have agency nurses who are not familiar with hospital protocols, quality control is diminished."

Not only is there a decrease in the quality of the service, he adds, but agency nurses are placed in hospitals on a short-term basis and are subsequently less invested in their patient care role.

Salary is another issue. Quebec is known to have among the lowest paid healthcare professionals in the country. Despite that, many people take pride in their work and some patients feel it.

Cornelia Brandt gave birth to her two children in hospital. "I had a great experience," she says. "I had an endless army of nurses and nurse’s aides coming in and out of the room to check in on me and my kids. I was very lucky."

Other people have not been so lucky. "A friend of mine was at the same hospital a month later and she had an awful experience," Brandt adds. "Her husband had to go looking for help."

This may be an indication of the severe lack of service assistants available in Quebec’s healthcare system. Healthcare professionals have been dealing with the very real problem of being overworked and understaffed for years and there is little indication this problem will end soon.

Audrey Levesque is a technical assistant at the St. Luc Hospital pharmacy. She is also a patient. Looking at the healthcare system from both sides of the coin, she has many thoughts on Quebec’s healthcare.

"Service assistants are exhausted," she says. "Nurses work for 16 hours at a time and it’s unfortunately a regular occurrence. That’s why so many people fall into depression and burnout. It’s crazy how few people there are in this industry."

Despite the shortage of staff and the stress associated with it, some service assistants still find joy in their work. "Half the time, the appreciation is more towards the nurses than the doctors because we’re the ones who are around the patients 95 percent of the time," she says. It is a labour of love that Monica wouldn’t give up for the world.

Written on July 14, 2011

The Fine Art of Improvisation

B-boy Greg ‘Krypto’ Selinger presented the unique improvisational theatre performance, Body Slam, last week at the Montreal Fringe Festival.

Inspired by contemporary dance pioneers, 27-year-old Selinger explores interactions between dancers and the spoken word.

“I've been working with having things that I want to communicate and stage performance is a great place to work towards getting it out, through movement and verbal language,” he said.  “I wanted to share this opportunity with other dancers.”

As the audience walked into the small, dark, starkly decorated room, dancers were already on stage writhing and twisting like worms in the earth. With no marked beginning to the show, the eclectic audience was forced to let go of convention and enter a world where breakdancers, poets, musicians and contemporary dancers interacted directly with them.

Selinger had started with more structured performances, but decided to forgo that in the last two shows. “I really felt like the structure that we were trying to tack on to the show added some unnecessary stress and prevented us from getting to see what was going on with everybody else,” he said. “I felt like there was an artificial separation between the pieces.”

Some pieces worked better than others. Musical accompaniment included a saxophone, a melodica and an electric guitar, all of which would join in as dancers and poets changed their rhythm. A more complete ‘band’ would have provided a better platform for improvisation, as some of the dancers and poets seemed less cohesive.

Other performers really stood out, showing their love for improvisation through their actions. ‘Krypto’ demonstrated incredible strength and flexibility with his headstands, handstands and lifts. Musician Vincent Stephen-Ong showed wonderful discretion and rhythm as he infused the pieces with his personal style. Slam poet Andre Prefontaine was a sublime addition to the group, doling out freestyle poetry based on words provided by the audience.

The show was indeed an exercise on improvisation, and with a more discerning eye on the right choice of performers and opportune moments for transition between acts, Selinger will have a strong and inspiring concept on his hands. “I would love to keep this project going,” he said.  “I really hope that people from the show, and maybe people from outside the show, want to help get this out there.”

written on June 20, 2011