That span only involves picking a few additional shifts, but it weighs on her after working through the pandemic for so long, especially in a rural area.“So I was the only for 30 people.”She said the lack of staffing is especially bad because she works in a rural area — Cut Knife, Sask., a town of about 600 people roughly 50 km east of North Battleford.The entire medical staff at the facility consists of about seven people.puts everyone back in the overtime situation.
Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president Tracy Zambory said the pandemic made rural staffing, which was already precarious, worse. The Saskatchewan government dedicated around $6 million towards hiring more than 100 long-term care aides over several years. In the 2022-23 the government set about $1.5 million aside to bring healthcare workers from the Philippines to Saskatchewan.