The province’s move to once again require masks in medical settings amid an uptick in respiratory illnesses could leave front-line nurses open to abuse, their union is warning.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health reinstated a mask mandate in health-care facilities to try and prevent the spread of the flu, RSV and COVID-19.
The B.C. Nurses Union (BCNU) says it wasn’t given a heads up about the policy change, and that it is worried nurses will bear the brunt of conflicts with people who disagree with the new rules.
“What we see is our members sometimes being put in a situation where they are having to remind visitors that they need to don a mask, and sometimes visitors become frustrated and then they take that out on nurses,” BCNU president Adriane Gear told Global News.
Gear said the province is in the process of phasing out greeters at hospitals who had previously been tasked with telling patients and visitors what the rules were, and that it’s not clear who will be left with that job.
“There hasn’t been any sort of thoughtful discussion in terms of how this will be managed, who will be responsible for enforcing the policies, and at least that recognition that it could generate additional workload and risk for nurses that are already working incredibly hard in some really challenging conditions,” she said.
The comments come one day after more than 300 nurses marched through Vancouver calling for safer work environments, amid what they say is an uptick in on-the-job violence.
Health Minister Josie Osborne was unavailable for an interview on Thursday.
In a statement, the ministry said the policy change was necessary to limit the spread of infection during respiratory illness season.
Data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control shows influenza and RSV cases are increasing. On Thursday, the agency said it was resuming weekly updates on virus spread amid the higher numbers.
“We need to do something, we need to intervene,” said Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre.
Conway said B.C. vaccination numbers have begun to lag, with just a quarter of the population receiving a flu shot this year.
He said with the growing spread of respiratory illnesses, the mandate is necessary to keep people safe.
“Lots of people in hospitals are sick. Sicker than you might appreciate. Some may die if they get influenza, RSV or COVID, so you are protecting them,” he said.
“If you do not wear a mask and you go home to someone who is at risk of getting very sick, and you caught it in the hospital, you might unwittingly transmit a life-threatening infection to a loved one. Doing these very simple things reduces the risk of these very bad outcomes.”
Gear said the union is not opposed to the mask mandate, which she agreed makes sense from a health perspective.
But she said the province needs to issue guidance on how workers should respond in the face of someone refusing to wear one.
“An employer could view masking as actually providing a safety measure, we can agree, but it is the enforcement of the policy that is then now generating another risk,” she said.
The mask requirement is expected to stay in effect until the risk of respiratory illnesses decreases, likely in the spring.