One nurse caring for fifty senior patients?

As a nurse, it's not okay.

— Maria, long-term care nurse and seniors advocate.

One nurse caring for fifty senior patients?

Healthcare in Manitoba is in Crisis

Healthcare in Manitoba is in <strong class="text-shock">Crisis</strong>

“As a nurse, my foremost concern is to deliver the best possible care to my patients. Sadly, right now, the workload is just impossible to manage. One way to alleviate this concern is to legislate the daily workloads for nurses. This would result in decreased burnout for nurses, improved safety outcomes, and greater job satisfaction. If these things were to happen, ultimately patients could get the quality care that they deserve.”

WOULD YOU WANT TO WORK UNDER THESE CONDITIONS?

Legislated nurse-patient ratios in Manitoba, even though research overwhelmingly supports them — and many other industries already require mandatory staffing ratios to keep people safe.

Of Manitoba’s largest hospitals rank among the ten worst in Canada for Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio, a key indicator of patient outcomes and preventable deaths.

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Of EFT nursing positions across the province are vacant, leaving units understaffed, stretched thin, and unable to meet patient needs safely.

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Hours is the median wait time for patients in Winnipeg emergency and urgent care departments — and that number doesn’t include everyone who left without being seen.

Nurse-Patient Ratios

Nurse-patient ratios (NPRs) set a maximum number of patients a nurse can safely care for at one time. They not only ensure patients receive safe, consistent, high-quality care, but also protect nurses from unmanageable workloads.

Many jurisdictions around the world that have implemented ratios, like Australia, Wales, Scotland, and some states in the US. Research has consistently shown that safe, effective, NPRs improve patient outcomes like mortality rates, readmission rates and length of hospital stay, while also reducing nurse burnout improving retention, resulting in more stable hospital operations.

Despite overwhelming evidence, no province in Canada currently has legislated NPRs. That leaves Manitoba with a unique opportunity to be the first province in the country to lead on safe staffing and set a national standard.

Right now, MNU is participating in a provincial NPR committee — a tripartite group made up of MNU, government, and the employer. The committee is currently reviewing data collected from nurse surveys across Manitoba to help inform evidence-based recommendations. The committee plans to present the recommendations to the provincial government by January 1, 2026.

Once those recommendations land on the health minister’s desk, the responsibility shifts entirely to government.

If Manitoba is serious about improving patient care, retention, and system sustainability, legislating nurse-patient ratios isn’t optional.

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There are no legislated nurse-patient ratios in Manitoba, even though research overwhelmingly supports them — and many other industries already require mandatory staffing ratios to keep people safe.

The Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio

The Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) is a national indicator used by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) to assess hospital performance.

It compares the number of actual patient deaths in acute-care hospitals with the number that would be expected, based on national benchmarks and adjusted for patient complexity. A higher HSMR suggests preventable deaths are occurring and patient care standards are slipping.

According to CIHI, four of Manitoba’s largest hospitals — a mix of teaching hospitals and community hospitals — rank among the ten worst in the entire country.

This is not a single-facility problem or a one-off issue. It’s a province-wide pattern signalling serious challenges in acute-care performance and patient safety.

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Of Manitoba’s largest hospitals rank among the ten worst in Canada for Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio, a key indicator of patient outcomes and preventable deaths.

Vacancy Rates

Vacancy rates have real consequences. When there aren’t enough nurses, the ability to provide holistic, thorough, patient-centred care collapses.

Instead of having time to assess, educate, comfort, and monitor patients properly, nurses are forced to prioritize only the most urgent tasks — a reality that increases the likelihood of missed care, delayed treatment, preventable harm, and poorer outcomes.

Across Manitoba, one in five equivalent full-time (EFT) nursing positions is vacant. That number reflects what nurses have been telling MNU for years: working conditions are driving nurses out of permanent positions. Overtime, unsafe workloads, burnout, and a lack of support make it impossible for many nurses to stay in full-time roles.

The provincial government has repeatedly announced improvements to healthcare staffing — but nurses on the front lines aren’t seeing these improvements in their workplaces. Units remain severely short staffed, schedules are unstable, and new hires announced in press releases are nowhere to be found on the units that desperately need them. MNU’s efforts to get clarity on where these nurses have actually been hired have been met with red tape and more questions than answers.

Patients deserve better. Nurses deserve better.

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Of EFT nursing positions across the province are vacant, leaving units understaffed, stretched thin, and unable to meet patient needs safely.

Wait Times

A median wait time means that half of the patients waited less than this number, and half waited longer. In Winnipeg emergency and urgent care departments, that median is now over four hours — the highest recorded since tracking began in 2016.

But that “4+ hours” paints only part of the picture.

Median wait times include patients who are triaged and seen immediately due to severe emergencies, which lowers the overall number. They also include the Children’s ER, where wait times tend to be shorter. This means the median is pulled down by faster cases, even while many other patients wait 7, 8, 9 hours or longer — something almost every Manitoban has experienced firsthand.

And crucially, these numbers do not include the patients who leave without being seen. According to the WRHA’s most recent annual report, over 15% of patients — roughly one in six — leave the ER or urgent care before receiving care at all. That alone is a warning sign of a system overwhelmed and unable to meet demand.

These long waits reflect a dangerous access block issue.

When hospitals don’t have the staff, beds, or flow capacity to move patients through the system efficiently, the entire system backs up. Ambulances wait. ERs overflow. Patients suffer. And nurses, who are already stretched thin, face impossible conditions that no amount of personal sacrifice can fix.

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Hours is the median wait time for patients in Winnipeg emergency and urgent care departments — and that number doesn’t include everyone who left without being seen.

Standing With Nurses Who Take Action

When nurses decide their worksites are unsafe and choose to grey list a facility, MNU stands with them. We support locals through the entire process — from documenting safety concerns, to communicating with the public, to pressing employers and government for urgent improvements. Grey listing is never taken lightly, and when nurses raise the alarm, we make sure it’s heard.

Amplifying Nurse Voices

Nurses share their stories with us every day: the violence they’ve survived, the fear they carry into their shifts, and the impact these conditions have on their health, their workplaces, and the care they’re able to provide. MNU amplifies these experiences through our social media channels and our bi-weekly podcast, Shift Happens. We blow the whistle when the system won’t to ensure nurses’ concerns can’t be ignored or buried.

Holding Employers and Government Accountable

MNU meets regularly with key decision-makers — including government, employers, police, and other stakeholders — to demand concrete action to improve our healthcare system. We follow up, track commitments, and press for timelines, because conversations alone don’t keep nurses safe.

Protecting Nurses Through Grievances and Specialized Support

When employers fail to protect nurses or violate the collective agreement, MNU files grievances to ensure members receive fair and just treatment. We also have specialized Labour Relations Officers who focus exclusively on Workplace Safety and Health issues and WCB claims. Their expertise ensures nurses get the support they need when they’ve been harmed at work — without being blamed, dismissed, or left to navigate the system alone.

Using Evidence to Push for Real Change

MNU gathers data through member research, incident reporting, and Freedom of Information requests. We use this evidence to produce public reports, expose system failures, and propose solutions that improve nurse conditions in every region of the province. When government or employers won’t be transparent, we do the work ourselves.

Driving Public Awareness Across Manitoba

Unsafe working conditions, eroding workplace culture, and declining patient care are system-wide issues that affect every Manitoban. That’s why MNU runs province-wide public awareness campaigns using billboards, websites, videos, lawn signs, social media, and more to ensure Manitobans understand what nurses are facing and why it matters. We also work with local and national media to make sure these stories reach far beyond hospital walls to the people responsible for fixing the system.

Nurses can’t fix this system alone — and they shouldn’t have to.

Real change happens when Manitobans see what’s going on and decide they won’t accept it. If you want safer hospitals, better care, and a system that doesn’t break the people working in it, here’s how you can help:

1. Stay Informed

The more you know about what nurses are facing, the harder it becomes for leaders to ignore it. Follow MNU to hear frontline stories, understand what’s happening inside our hospitals, and see what we’re pushing for day in, day out. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Threads.

2. Share What Matters

When a post resonates with you, share it. Put it in front of people who haven’t seen what nurses are up against. Awareness grows one share at a time, and silence only protects the status quo. Nurses are speaking up, and you can back them by helping their voices carry further.

3. Tell Your Story

Nurses, patients, families — everyone has a story about the healthcare system, and those stories are powerful. They show what statistics can’t. They expose the gap between what should happen and what actually happens. Share yours by sending a DM on social media, emailing us, or by submitting your story right here on this site.

4. Listen and Subscribe to Shift Happens

If you want the unfiltered version of what’s happening in healthcare, start here. Every other week, Darlene Jackson and Brandi Johnson take on the issues nurses live through — the ones that never make it into political announcements or press releases. Listen, subscribe, and share episodes that hit home on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at shifthappenspod.ca.

5. Thank a Nurse

If a nurse helped you or someone you love, please tell us. In a system this strained, those moments matter. Share your message, and it may be featured in our “That Good Shift” podcast segment — a reminder that good care still happens, even when the odds are stacked against nurses. You can submit a thank-you message here.

6. Push the Government to Act

Nothing changes without pressure. Use this letter template to send an email to the Minister of Health and MLA Carla Compton and tell them you expect better — for nurses, for patients, for all Manitobans. They work for you. Make sure they hear you.

Minister of Health
Hon. Uzoma Asagwara
Email: minhsltc@manitoba.ca

Premier’s Advisor on Nursing Culture & Safety
MLA Carla Compton
Email: carla.compton@yourmanitoba.ca

7. Share Your Ideas

Frontline workers and the public often see solutions long before leadership does. If you have ideas to improve safety, staffing, or patient care, send us an email. Honest solutions come from people who understand the system, or from those who’ve been shaped by it.