Our “lack of humanity” has caused a lot of noise in recent weeks. In its most recent report, which denounces it, the Public Protector says it has observed it on a few occasions in the health sector. It is also mentioned in coroner Julie-Kim Godin’s report on the suicide of Amélie Champagne. Is bureaucracy turning health care workers into machines? Have we collectively lost our compass of empathy? And if so, how can we put a little heart back into interactions?
Posted at 1:18 a.m.
Updated at 5:45 a.m.
A terminally ill person who needed help keeping his cat at home. A desperate young woman who needed a little more empathy from certain members of the healthcare staff. Recent news has highlighted situations in the health sector where a small dose of humanity could have made a difference. What happened?
We have all already witnessed the professionalism and humanity of healthcare staff in a hospital or clinic. But almost all of us also have an anecdote of situations where humanity was not there. How to explain it?
“There is no one who gets up in the morning and says to themselves: I don’t want to be human today,” says Véronique Dubé, holder of the Marguerite-d’Youville Research Chair in Humanist Interventions. in nursing at the University of Montreal.
“The difficult context in the healthcare environment explains, in part, the lack of humanity,” she adds.
“It seems like we haven’t learned from the pandemic,” says Monique Lanoix, director of the School of Ethics, Social Justice and Public Service at Saint Paul University, in Ottawa. We put structures in place to be more effective, but we never talk about the structure of care. »
The one who is also an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy has visited CHSLDs a lot to visit a loved one in recent years. She says she has often seen people doing very good work. But she also sees people working mechanically.
Several reasons explain this, according to her.
Perhaps there are people who have not chosen this job and for whom it does not represent their dream profession. Maybe they haven’t received adequate training? As for those who feel truly committed to what they do, they are always short of time.
Monique Lanoix, director of the School of Ethics, Social Justice and Public Service at Saint Paul University, in Ottawa
The philosophy professor is not the first to emphasize that we should question the consequences of the staff shortage and those of the cuts made by the Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette, in the mid-2010s, which are still felt today .
“If you have x number of people to feed between 12 p.m. and 12:45 p.m., you will do it mechanically. Workers are asked to do assembly line work…”
She cites several examples of dehumanization observed in the healthcare environment over the years: “When we placed four patients in the same room, their beds separated by a simple curtain, during COVID, we dehumanized them,” says Professor Lanoix. When healthcare workers refer to a patient by the name of their illness, it is another form of dehumanization. »
Véronique Dubé points out that workplaces also have something to do with it. “We have to look at the way we welcome employees,” she said. When your workplace is in disrepair, when you feel like you’re being treated like a number, or when the rules are too rigid, all of this has an impact. We also need to humanize the system. »
No more judgment
So how do we inject a little humanity back into all of this?
The holder of the Marguerite-d’Youville Research Chair believes that more room should be left for judgment. “We must give professionals the means to put their skills to good use,” she says.
Professor Lanoix talks to me about the principle of “workaround”, which could be translated as “diversion”, or “how to deviate from a regulation to end up providing good care”.
She gives me the example of a patient in a Toronto hospital who was very agitated. In this hospital, patients were prohibited from using any sharp objects. However, the patient’s daughter informed the nursing staff that her mother liked to knit. So they put needles and wool in his hands. Result: she started knitting. And she regained her calm.
“If we want health professionals to find meaning in their work, we must decentralize decisions,” believes Véronique Dubé. They are the ones who have the solutions, but right now, they don’t even have the time and mental space to think. »
Value the care
The two experts I spoke to both ask THE right question, the one that should be at the heart of a reflection on the lack of humanity: do we give value to gestures of humanity, of kindness, benevolence shown by the nursing staff? How can we support and promote these qualities which are not counted anywhere?
Emotional labor, what we call careis very little recognized, and there is no small box in the paperwork to fill out to note the time given to it. However, is it not to “take care” that all these people have chosen to work in the health sector?
“Humanism is a skill,” observes Véronique Dubé, “and we must revalue this skill. »
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