MEDIA ADVISORY: “I loved going to work when I first started. Now I dread it:” new study on Ontario’s hospital workers’ deteriorating morale to be released on Thursday in Kitchener

Event Information

Begins: 15 August 2024
Location: Kitchener, ON

KITCHENER, ON –(COMMUNITYWIRE)– A new peer-reviewed study warns that Ontario’s predominantly female hospital workers are in deep turmoil as they labour through an intensifying staffing crisis that is harming their well-being and compromising patient care. The full results of the study will be announced at a media conference in Kitchener on Thursday afternoon.

Running on Empty, published in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, is co-authored by Dr. Margaret Keith and Dr. Jim Brophy, who since 2017 have spearheaded three studies on working conditions in Ontario’s health care sector. Dr. Craig Slatin, a U.S. health researcher, was a co-investigator.

Dr. Brophy will present the findings at the news conference along with co-author Michael Hurley, the president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). The study is based on 26 in-depth interviews with CUPE hospital workers including nurses, personal support workers, and clerical staff. The qualitative study was complemented by a poll surveying 775 hospital workers, across Ontario. 

WHO:
Dr. James Brophy, researcher affiliated with the University of Windsor, and Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

WHAT:
Media conference to release findings of new study about Ontario’s hospital workers

WHERE:
GRSP Seminar Room, Kitchener Public Library, 175 Indian Rd, Kitchener, ON N2B 2S7

WHEN:
2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 15

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For more information, contact:

Zaid Noorsumar, CUPE Communications
znoorsumar@cupe.ca
647-995-9859