Retain nurses before recruiting them from other provinces: association – National | 24CA News

Efforts to lure nurses from different provinces are underway in a number of elements of the nation, however the head of a nationwide nurses affiliation says the poaching gained’t remedy something until working circumstances are improved.

“We know that nurses are facing inadequate working conditions, and that is the main reason many are leaving their jobs,” Sylvain Brousseau, the president of the Canadian Nurses Association, mentioned in an interview Thursday.

“If working conditions and retention are not the focus, the new nurses recruited from other provinces may find themselves wanting to leave their jobs.”

This week, Horizon Health Network, one in all New Brunswick’s two well being authorities, held three-day recruiting occasions in Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Its pitch to draw 120 nurses to the province contains the promise of an interesting life close to the ocean with monetary incentives of as much as $20,000.

A spokesperson mentioned recruiting from exterior of New Brunswick isn’t new, and that it’s additionally hiring nurses via partnerships with universities in Maine and in India, in addition to taking steps to retain employees. The province’s different regional well being authority, Vitalite Health Network, says will probably be attending a number of profession gala’s in Quebec within the coming weeks.

Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford introduced that the province will begin mechanically recognizing the credentials of health-care employees registered in different provinces and territories. “A doctor from British Columbia or a nurse from Quebec who wants to come and work in Ontario shouldn’t face barriers or bureaucratic delays to start providing care,” Ford advised a Jan. 19 news convention.

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Newfoundland and Labrador has launched incentives in an effort to lure residence health-care employees with connections to the province, whereas Quebec mentioned it’s seeking to recruit internationally.

“All provinces in Canada face the same challenge of a shortage of labour in their health-care systems,” the workplace of Health Minister Christian Dube mentioned in a press release. “It’s in everyone’s interest to recruit people internationally. Meanwhile, we continue to work so that our network becomes an employer of choice and to improve working conditions.”

Brousseau mentioned nurses want higher pay, extra help workers – to allow them to give attention to caring for sufferers – and accountability for fewer sufferers.

“Thirty years ago on surgery, I had six patients during the day, seven to eight on the evening shift and 12 on night shift, and now it’s 15 during the day in surgery in some places, or 10. This is too much,” he mentioned.

Brosseau mentioned he’d additionally wish to see an finish to practices like obligatory additional time, which stays frequent in Quebec, and nurses being pressured to work ostensibly non-compulsory additional time shifts.

He mentioned the nurses affiliation isn’t against nurses going to a different province to work and that it has been calling for a discount of obstacles between provinces – however that gained’t repair the issues.

“It’s not by going to poach nurses from one province to (another) that you will solve the health-care system crisis that we are going through right now,” he mentioned. “It’s by giving them better working conditions and a better health-care environment.”

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Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, a University of Ottawa professor and director of the Canadian Health Workforce Network, mentioned the efforts to recruit nurses throughout provincial boundaries are a symptom of a wider drawback.

While it’s not the primary time Canadian health-care methods have seemed to different elements of the nation for workers, the scarcity of nurses and different health-care employees is worse than earlier than.

“I think what is new is the extent of the problem and that every province is in these circumstances, and this is not just a Canadian problem. This is happening across the world,” she mentioned in an interview Thursday.

Solving Canada’s nursing scarcity wants to begin with retention, she argues; recruitment alone can’t remedy it. “It’s focusing on one part of the challenge, of bringing more in, and we’re not looking at all of those who are leaving,” she mentioned. “It’s not a long-term strategy.”

Bourgeault mentioned governments want higher information for workforce planning and that federal businesses, such because the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada, may very well be used to provide provinces higher instruments.

Mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios would additionally assist retain nurses, she mentioned, however they may within the quick time period result in longer wait occasions.

“I think that as a society, we need to have a crucial conversation about how we manage this crisis going forward,” she mentioned.

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