Over 1,300 nursing vacancies in Nova Scotia
SYDNEY — The pandemic has left a staggering 1,356 nursing vacancies province-wide, including almost 300 on Cape Breton Island.
“There has been a fatigue factor through the pandemic where some people have just stopped working or sought other interests in terms of changing professions,” said Dr. Kevin Orrell, deputy minister of the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness and CEO of the Office of Health Care Professionals Recruitment.
“We recognize their value during the pandemic and that it has come at a personal cost to many who have worked hard who have been fatigued by the stress of the pandemic the past 18 months.”
Of the 1,356 vacancies province-wide, full-time, part-time and temporary positions, 1,102 are registered nurses, 231 are licensed practical nurses and 23 are nurse practitioners.
A total of the 278 vacancies are in Cape Breton, including 231 registered nurses, 42 licensed practical nurses and five nurse practitioners.
FINDING A CURE
Orrell said one of the priorities right now is addressing nursing vacancies and the need to fill them across all sectors.
There is a large pool of casual nurses and any looking for full-time employment will be offered jobs.
As well, Orrell said they are interested in attracting nurses before they finish their studies to stay and work in Nova Scotia.
As far as people going into the profession, he said the province has been pretty robust in terms of filling seats at the university level and knows people have been refused entrance.
“We’ll look at the numbers applying and numbers that don’t get into a program and then appropriately adjust the sets to help meet the demand,” he said.
Orrell said high nursing vacancies are not unique to Nova Scotia. It’s something every jurisdiction in Canada is tackling right now due to the pandemic. They’ve had requests from the Northern Territories for nurses from Nova Scotia.
“Well the answer is no because we don’t have enough to provide care in Nova Scotia,” he added.
RECRUITING
Orrell, who worked 32 years as an orthopedic surgeon, said spending 18 months as deputy minister of health during the pandemic augmented his experience and knowledge of the point of view of the entire system. Now adding the newly created position of CEO of the Office for Health Care Professionals Recruitment to his other duties, he feels he’s well placed based on experience.
So far five days into his newly appointed position, Orrell not only recruited two subspecialists and a psychiatrist but was able to keep two doctors who were exiting the province.
“They’ve been retained to stay in the province with some adjustment of the circumstances of them coming here from the United Kingdom,” he said. “In the first five days, we’ve had five successes.”
He said the office will be working on a larger scale to expedite the process by which people can come to Nova Scotia from other parts of the country or world to augment the workforce, doctors in particular.
Meetings will include with the College of Doctors and Surgeons of Nova Scotia with Dalhousie Medical School, Doctors Nova Scotia, and other allied health associations, on how they can move forward in the process to see it more streamlined than it has been.
“We are also going to have more of a connection with communities, who can be very helpful in our efforts to recruit.”
When asked why doctors leave the province, Orrell said
he thinks everyone has their own expectations of work and sometimes it’s disappointment in the conditions of work.
“There have not been a lot of exit interviews that have given us the information we need to evaluate that,” he said.
Orrell said that is going to be part of the retention process to determine exactly what did or didn’t occur to result in someone leaving the province after a short time.
CONTINUING CARE ASSISTANTS
Shortages are not only with doctors and nurses. Orrell said there’s a need for more people in other professions they’d like to offer jobs as soon as possible to including continuing care assistants.
“We’re trying to create some interest in people looking to train and become qualified to work in long-term facilities because CCAS are the very important workers that we have witnessed through the pandemic, who have cared for our most vulnerable people,” he said.
Orrell said CCAS are tired, worked long hours during the pandemic, cancelled vacation time and days off. He said they recognize they are a valuable part of the system and hope to heighten interest here too.
“That will be done in a number of ways,” he said. “That’s stuff the office will be addressing in these early days.”
NURSING VACANCIES NOT NEW
Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, said they’ve always had a lot of nursing vacancies, it’s worse, but it’s not new.
“I’ve been doing this job since 2002 and not one year has gone by where I haven’t spoken about nursing vacancies,” she said. “Not one. It’s been a problem for a very long time and we’ve been saying for a very long time we need a comprehensive plan. What’s your plan? “
Hazelton feels the pandemic exasperated the nursing situation because hundreds were taken out of the system for up to 18 months to due vaccinations, contact tracings, swabbing or other reasons.
She said that hurt for sure and although there wasn’t anything anyone could have done about it, it had a significant impact on those left behind.
“They had to work a lot of extra hours, a lot of extra shifts, she said. “It was a big impact on those left behind.”
Hazelton said it takes four years to become a registered nurse and two for a licensed practical nurse. The problem is seats, waiting lists involve a couple of hundred people.
She said people don’t understand the costs associated, every nursing seat costs the government about $100,000 because they subsidize university programs.
“So it’s easy to say let’s just put 400 more seats in, well that’s $4 million more dollars,” she said.
Then, she said, universities have to increase their infrastructure, their labs and their professors.
Hazelton suggested the province look at seats they’re subsidizing for programs that are not able to employ graduates and then at nursing seats, where there are jobs.
She said retention and recruitment is one thing but going forward a health resource plan is needed to engage more nurses and for that reason, she was happy to see Dr. Orrell appointed CEO of the Office of Health Care Professionals Recruitment.
“I know that I’ll be consulted because he’s already sent me a note asking me to meet with him,” she added.