P.E.I. misses out on more nurses

I write echoing Mitch MacDonald’s article of May 2, 2018 addressing concerns regarding nursing shortages on P.E.I. A national problem, across Canada our health care system is being impacted. We are seeing increased length of hospital stay, increase of complications, cancellations of procedures, decreased services, burnout among staff and decrease in patient satisfaction. Our patient population demographics and our nursing demographics predict this situation only to worsen.

As an Islander who has been practicing critical care nursing outside the province for 25 years, PEINU contract negotiations have been of interest to me. In particular the issue of Canadian Nurse Seniority Portability. This is a recruitment and retention strategy adopted by other Canadian provinces to combat nursing shortages. It allows nurses to move from province to province without negatively impacting their job security, compensation and vacation allotment. N.B., N.S., N.L., Ont., Alta. and B.C. all have collective agreements that provide for this - making them a more attractive than P.E.I. to nurses considering relocation. It is unfortunate that P.E.I. is missing out on this opportunity. I, for one, have another good 15 years of nursing I could dedicate to caring for critically-ill Islanders.

Tracey Macmillan, Registered Nurse, Moncton, N.B.