Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, understandably, Members from this side of the House have been holding the Department of Health and Social Services to task this week in this House, but I just wanted to start off with a thank you today during question period.
My two youngest children were vaccinated against COVID19, and I'm incredibly grateful to the Department of Health and Social Services for that.
One of my jokesters asked me if this was his Christmas present and it's probably not his, but it was definitely mine. So thank you very much for that.
Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It is my understanding that staff surveys are done through the accreditation process for hospitals. What were the outcomes of the 2019 hospital or Stanton accreditation surveys at or in Yellowknife while they were going through that process. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm just going to say at the outset, there are quite a large number of surveys that involve the nursing staff. There are these accreditation surveys my colleague has mentioned. I have also mentioned the exit surveys for people who have resigned this year as healthcare professionals, nurses in particular, and that the nurses professional association is doing a survey as well about issues that are leading to people's job dissatisfaction.
So to narrow this down to the accreditation survey, there were two of them conducted in connection with the accreditation. One is the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey and the other is Worklife Pulse Survey.
So for the Canadian Patient Safety Survey, the results show that the NTHSSA reported higher than the Canadian average in three of eight survey dimensions, and three dimensions scored within five percent of the Canadian average under the dimensions that the NTHSSA scored lower than the Canadian average. So this is not easy to understand as I read it out here. But what I think it says is that the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey gave us a reasonable rating where we were either above or on par in most areas.
The Worklife Pulse Survey reported higher than Canadian average results in four of seven survey dimensions. Having said that, the lowest score, compared to Canadian averages, was received for the health and safety of the work environment. So clearly, there was a flag in that survey that work needed to be done in that area. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that information. I think that there are, you know, a lot of discussions of surveys and collecting information.
And so my next question for the Minister is what were the outcomes that relate to staff morale and staffing issues at Stanton that came out of the surveys and were there any changes from the previous surveys or the exit interviews that were done that were able to be implemented at Stanton. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that they took the information and made a communications plan to address the areas of weakness that were identified. As a result of that, they have biweekly allstaff updates; they have improved the use of internal communication platforms; they have promoted the use of internal feedback tools to receive questions and information from staff. I know there is sort of a suggestion box function now that people can use anonymously to point out issues and concerns. And it's my understanding that in fact these tools are heavily used, and that's been particularly the case during the COVID pandemic period. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. It's my understanding that some of the issues that we're hearing about are definitely persistent issues in a lot of our high stress shift work type environments within the GNWT. And so I guess I'm wondering what what information is management within Stanton expecting to hear from the current nursing survey that is different from the one that they've previously heard and how is this time going to be different. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have any information about the results of the surveys now underway. But I will say that they are being conducted almost three years later than the surveys I spoke about at the beginning of my answers. And so I think the operating environment has changed because of COVID and that the results will be different. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of these exit surveys. And we understand that there are ways that we can improve the work life of nurses at Stanton and on the obstetrics unit, we're hearing a lot about at the moment. And, you know, somebody has already said this today, and I've said it here as well, it is preferable to retain a nurse than recruit a nurse. It works better for all of us if we have someone who's already here, enjoys working in the North, has a family and life established here, to stay here, rather than feel that the working conditions are such that their preference is to move on, particularly because of the working conditions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Given this Assembly's interest in not only recruiting but also, as the Minister states, retaining our healthcare workers in the Northwest Territories, I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to commit to sharing the results of that survey and also the responses from the Department of Health and Social Services to address them with this House. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I understand that there's a health system human resources plan that's being finalized and my colleague, the Minister responsible for Human Resources has spoken about this, and the results of the surveys that I've spoken of will inform actions to improve the recruitment and retention of health care staff. I will in fact, share with the Standing Committee on Social Development the plan when it's complete and the summaries of the surveys when they're available. Thank you.
