‘Nunavut is scary’: Nurses speak out about toxic work environment – Nunatsiaq News
Oct 30, 2023
Current, former staff allege harassment, abuse, blacklisting make it harder for Nunavummiut to access health care
Nurses say a toxic workplace culture in Nunavut’s health centres is driving them out of the territory and, in some cases, out of the profession entirely.
“People say, ‘Oh, pay them more, pay them more.’ No, dummies, Nunavut is scary,” says Jessica Garner, who worked in Baker Lake and Gjoa Haven between April 2019 and September 2020.
She came to the territory looking for an adventure and an opportunity to help people. Instead, she says she was worked to the bone, harassed by her colleagues and superiors and eventually blacklisted from working in the territory after asking for help.
Garner is one of several nurses sounding an alarm about a workplace culture in Nunavut they say is so toxic it creates a barrier to health care.
