Nurses drawing attention to personnel shortages BC-wide
Posted May 25, 2018 10:58 pm.
Last Updated May 25, 2018 11:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As the province is announcing more funding to create Nurse Practitioner positions, the BC Nurses Union is drawing attention to shortages among their ranks.
The health care system has come to rely on nurses working overtime and ‘agency’ nurses – those brought in from elsewhere on a short-term basis.
The shortage is at its most critical in northern BC – where 15 per cent of nursing positions are unfilled.
But Christine Sorensen, president of the BC Nurses Union, says recruitment and retention are problems even in the Lower Mainland.
“We hear complaints from nurses many times, and even from employers, that it’s difficult to recruit and retain nurses here because of the cost of housing and the cost of living here in the Lower Mainland,” she notes.
“We are seeing pockets of areas, particularly in Intensive Care Units, critical care and emergency departments, where it’s very difficult to find nurses to fill their roles. Agency nurses are relied upon.”
Agency nurses are often from out-of-province or other countries, but many are local who are already working full time, offering up their weekends and their vacations to work at other hospitals. They often get paid a higher baseline rate than regular full-time nurses, but don’t get the benefits, like extended health and dental.
Sorensen says the province has to do a better job of snatching up nurses from local schools, before they’re recruited elsewhere to address a world-wide shortage.
“There really has been no organized plan on how to recruit nurses,” says Sorensen, who feels the government could provide better financial support for new nurses saddled with heavy school-related debt.
Compounding the shortage is the fact that a good portion of BC nurses are retiring. The nurses union says the government’s own Labour Market Outlook projects a need for over 23,000 registered and psychiatric nurses between 2017 and 2027.
Research done by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions reveals that in 2016, overtime paid to BC nurses cost the system $120 million.