Ontario nurses appalled at exclusion from PTSD support bill

Members of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) are “dismayed” at the fact nurses have been excluded from a provincial bill designed to support first responders.

Earlier this week, the Ontario government passed legislation that presumes post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosed in first responders is work-related. The Supporting Ontario’s First Responders Act or Bill 163 offers the likes of firefighters, paramedics and police officers easier access to treatment and resources for the condition, as well as an array of benefits through WSIB.

The government estimates the bill will help more than 73,000 people in Ontario — none of which will be nurses.

First responders are defined in the Act as firefighters, fire investigators, police officers, paramedics, ambulance service managers, correctional institution workers, dispatch workers, emergency medical attendants and people working in emergency response teams.

RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun responded to the exclusion with an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne arguing nurses are exposed to the same amount of trauma and violence as the professions covered by the bill.

“Nurses in emergency departments, intensive and neonatal intensive care units, long-term care homes and psychiatric settings experience physical violence oftentimes from patients who are cognitively or mentally impaired,” Grinspun said.

Grinspun also draws attention to the bill’s apparent bias for male-dominated professions and urges the Premier to amend the bill to be more inclusive.

According to Statistics Canada and the Government of Canada, males made up 97.6 per cent of fire fighters in 2015, 68 per cent of paramedics, 64.2 of correctional service officers and 80.1 per cent of police officers in 2012. Whereas in nursing, 92.6 per cent of the workforce in 2015 was female according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Brenda Leonard is a nurse of 30 years who spent a majority of her career in the intensive care unit. She recalls the sudden death of a patient caused her to suffer from PTSD for 10 years and quit her job at the hospital because she couldn’t bear the memories it triggered.

“I had so much shame, I held that shame for years and they didn’t recognize it. Nobody would recognized that nurses get PTSD and I had no where to go,” she said.

Leonard links Bill 163’s failure to include nurses to not enough voices talking about PTSD in the nursing community because it is so taboo.

“We see some horrific things and nobody talks about it. Everyone just keeps moving, no one talks about it and you just finish your shift,” Leonard said.