New Brunswick is utilizing hefty signing bonuses and a plethora of advantages to draw nurses from Quebec and different provinces.
Horizon Well being, a well being authority that delivers medical care on behalf of the New Brunswick authorities, held a hiring occasion at a Montreal-area resort on Tuesday.
The occasion sought to attract nurses serious about working in New Brunswick with a suggestion that features the promise of as much as $10,000 in signing bonuses, as much as $5,000 in relocation prices and different advantages.
New Brunswick will not be the one province vying for nurses. A widespread scarcity of health-care staff more and more has provinces competing with each other to draw certified nurses, however specialists say poaching staff from elsewhere in Canada won’t tackle the foundation reason behind staffing shortages.
Kerry Kennedy, director of expertise acquisition with Horizon Well being Community, mentioned the Montreal occasion was not a job honest however was concentrating on nursing candidates who had expressed curiosity in working in New Brunswick.
“We’re all in a candidate-driven market and attempting to do the very best that we will to recruit and retain the nurses that we now have,” she mentioned, including that New Brunswick’s low price of residing and good work-life steadiness had been among the many causes that health-care staff might be drawn to the province.Â
Horizon Well being Community is holding related occasions throughout the nation, in Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto. Kennedy mentioned the primary 120 candidates will obtain personalized therapy and assist to maneuver to New Brunswick.
That “customized” therapy may embody assist paying for lodging or help with a associate discovering a brand new job in New Brunswick, Kennedy mentioned.
When CBC reporters attended the Quebec Horizon Well being occasion, no nurses arrived to satisfy with recruiters.Â
Ontario has additionally mentioned it’s attempting to recruit nurses from different provinces, together with Quebec. Premier Doug Ford has begun implementing new guidelines that can cut back delays for nurses from different provinces who need to work in Ontario.
Quebec is tormented by its personal staffing shortages. Necessary additional time is ubiquitous at some hospitals, just like the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, the place nurses staged a sit-in final week in protest of their working situations.Â
Christian Dubé, Quebec’s well being minister acknowledged in an announcement that each one Canadian provinces had been dealing with the identical labour shortages.Â
“It’s in everybody’s curiosity to recruit personnel from overseas,” he mentioned. “We’ve some nice examples right here in Quebec of nurses from around the globe who’re making a distinction. Within the meantime, we proceed to work to make our community an employer of alternative and to enhance working situations.”
Frédéric Lapierre, who represents nursing and cardiorespiratory employees on the FSSS-CSN, one among Quebec’s main health-care unions, mentioned he was not stunned to see different provinces attempting to recruit Quebec nurses.Â
“There’s a scarcity of nurses in every single place,” he mentioned, “so everyone seems to be scrambling for nurses throughout the provinces, and even throughout Quebec. I’d say that it is the similar factor right here. Between the hospitals, we’re additionally combating over nurses.”
Ivy Bourgeault, a professor on the College of Ottawa and chief of the Canadian Well being Workforce Community, mentioned New Brunswick’s try to draw Quebec nurses was “telling of the difficult scenario that each one well being programs are in throughout the nation.”
However relatively than attempting to recruit nurses from their neighbouring provinces, that are additionally coping with shortages, Bourgeault mentioned provinces ought to work on retaining their very own health-care staff.Â
“It is not the very best technique,” Bourgeault mentioned. “I am undecided how sustainable it’s, I am undecided that makes for good neighbours and it raises quite a few moral points. Are you taking from different jurisdictions that want it?”
Damien Contandriopoulos, a nursing professor on the College of Victoria, mentioned provinces competing with one another to draw nurses was an ineffective solution to clear up issues of their well being programs.Â
Including extra nurses to problematic hospitals the place staffing shortages are ubiquitous won’t make these hospitals higher, he mentioned, and nurses transplanted right into a poisonous atmosphere are simply as prone to go away and discover one other place to work.Â
“If we need to clear up the issue for actual,” he mentioned, “we now have to cut back strain on hospitals, we now have to raised handle human assets and we now have to attempt to deal with nurses higher when it comes to defending them from diseases, their psychological well being and work-life steadiness.”
