COMMENTARY: Retired nurse questions fix-it plans for health care

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS

Last month, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced that travel nurses, as of Dec. 15, 2023, will only work for a maximum of 180 days in provincially funded hospitals and long-term care facilities.

According to Premier Houston, many Nova Scotia nurses currently work alongside travel nurses who make more money and have “better schedule flexibility.” The premier stated this is a move “out of respect” for those nurses who are dedicated to our system and are “permanent employees” in our system.

Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, said “It’s a great step.”

She also stated that going forward, new grads in Nova Scotia will not be able to work as travel nurses during their first year after graduation.

Premier Houston said restrictions on travel nurses should be a regional strategy.

Remarks can no longer be ignored

I really tried to avoid reacting and responding to Premier Houston’s and Hazelton’s remarks regarding travel nurses, but I just can’t ignore them anymore.

As mortality rates rise in Nova Scotia hospitals and patient outcomes become increasingly negative as people wait unbelievably long hours to see a doctor, get assessed and treated in our ER departments, our premier’s latest strategy is to pressure travel nurses and potential travel nurses into becoming permanent staff nurses in our public hospitals and long term care facilities.

He, with support from the president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, plans to do this by limiting contracts, etc.

I think Premier Houston and Hazelton reflect a total lack of insight into what has actually become a cruel reality for those who are trying to survive this chaotic, mismanaged mess – namely the very vulnerable sick and the very dedicated health-care workers still left standing.

Time to wake up, Mr. Premier

In my opinion, Premier Houston, patients are suffering, and in some cases dying, unnecessarily in overcrowded ERs and you think travel nurses may create instability in the system? Wake up and take the blinders off!

It’s way past time to put pressure tactics to bed and really take a good hard look at the reality our dedicated health-care professionals are struggling with on a daily basis.

People are suffering now in overcrowded ERs with insufficient staff. You, Premier Houston, and your predecessors did not prepare for the future of health care when you had ample opportunities over the past 30 years and were warned on multiple occasions by very reputable people quoting statistics, etc., and yet those warnings were ignored in my opinion and in the opinion of many others who have worked in the public health-care system.

Now we are suffering through the effects of those very careless moves that forced nurses out of hospitals and some out of nursing altogether.

Premier Houston said in your statement to the media regarding travel nurses that this was a move “out of respect” for those nurses who are dedicated to our system, who are permanent employees in our system.

I remember a time many years ago when RNs were begging for permanent full-time employment in hospitals and governments chose to hire nurses on a casual basis instead to save paying benefits and to have more control over them while promising full time status maybe in the future.

A lot of good nurses were lost this way even though objections were made by nurses and doctors at the time. I think, Premier Houston, most nurses are dedicated to a public health-care system but firstly they are dedicated to caring for and advocating for their very vulnerable patients.

Restrictions aren’t the answer

Right now, I think, there is no system that is working as it should in the hospital setting. You need more doctors and nurses, especially in ERs, ICUs, etc. You needed them yesterday. It’s not the time to restrict any nurse that is willing to come to Nova Scotia and help out in this ongoing crisis that your government and previous governments have created by not heeding the multiple warnings about what was to come. It’s here!

Yes, it will cost more money to fix it and it will need people with good common sense and a backbone to make radical changes if you have any hope of getting and retaining good nurses and doctors. You need to get enough staff to create a stable, safe work environment that will attract and retain nurses – not burn them out as has been, unfortunately, the practice in past years.

In closing, I have to comment on a quote attributed to Hazelton which reads “If there is nowhere for our nurses to go other than go permanently, they will not likely go to travel nursing.” If this is a part of your recruit and retain strategy, Premier Houston, all I can say is “God help us all!”

Sandra Cole is a retired registered nurse. She lives in Albert Bridge.