The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on the mental health of Saskatchewan nurses, with some contemplating leaving the profession altogether, according to the President of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses.

Tracy Zambory works with nurses all over the province and says the issue, which has persisted through out the entire pandemic, is still very fluid.

"The ongoing stresses of the pandemic are very difficult," Zambory said. "Registered nurses are feeling unsupported, unheard, their mental health is suffering."

A survey from the University of Regina indicates that 43 per cent of nurses in Saskatchewan are reporting mental health problems, according to Zambory.

"One of the members said it very well, they said that 'COVID has had such a profound negative effect, that it has affected one entire generation of registered nurses,'" Zambory said.

Nursing position shortages have also increased. Zambory said there were 220 open positions as of last year, and that number climbed to 330 in just a few months.

Zambory said the southeast corner of the province is not exempt from the nursing challenges.

"It is extremely difficult to work in that area, just like it is in the rest of the province," she said. "Right now, the southeast corner of the province has some of the highest positivity rates of COVID."

Rural hospitals have been particularly hard hit, with several hospitals, including the Redvers Health Centre, being crippled by overarching staff shortages.

"It isn't actual patient care that's the problem...it's the fact that there's a nonstop stream of sick people coming into the system," Zambory said. "They are extremely short staff, and there's been no break in the action. Many times people are being denied the ability to take a rest, and they've been expected to carry the health care system on their shoulders since March of 2020."

"It's been the registered nurses and the health care team who have carried this system from the beginning, and they have gotten no relief."

Zambory was also critical of the Saskatchewan government for not addressing the problem. Specifically, allowing large public gatherings to continue while other provinces have clamped down again amid the Omicron variant.

"We're the only province without the public health orders to put that safety barrier around our health care system to give it a minute to breath," she said. "And being unheard and unsupported...this kind of stress is not sustainable for human beings, it just isn't. And registered nurses are starting to crack under the pressure."

Zambory said that in the short term, limiting gatherings in Saskatchewan would be the first step to mitigating the crisis. After that, she said they must look at a "concrete health and human resources strategy" that focuses on recruiting and retaining nurses and provides them with more staff support.