Premiers discuss travel nurse pay cap at Halifax health summit

Janet Hazelton says for the first time in a while, she’s “cautiously optimistic” for the future of nurses in Nova Scotia. 

But the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union president said there’s still a fair amount of work to be done. 

Hazelton said while there are roughly 1,500 vacant nursing positions in Nova Scotia, our province isn’t the only one facing a nursing shortage.

“We got a problem, but everyone has it,” Hazelton said in an interview on Tuesday.

Hazelton said the nursing shortage means nurses are working short all the time, increasing each person’s workload, and then sick time on top of that “exacerbates it even more.” 

“And because nurses are always working short, they’re getting more injured,” she said. 

For example, Hazelton said there aren’t always two nurses available when someone needs to be lifted into bed, resulting in a person doing the job themselves and increasing the likelihood of being injured. 

Hazelton said the staff shortage is also resulting in longer wait times, which she believes has led to an increase in physical and verbal abuse.

“Patients and their families are losing their patience and they’re more agitated and aggravated by the fact that they have to wait two hours or three hours or six hours or however long they have to wait, and oftentimes they will take that out on the nurse,” she said. 

Hazelton said she’s pleased people have been charged, so hopes people will think twice before they are abusive towards health-care workers. 

Nurses’ union presidents from each province recently sent an open letter to Canada’s premiers, who gathered in Halifax for a two-day health summit, urging them to address the unsafe and unhealthy work conditions nurses face daily. 

Phasing out private staffing agencies, such as those that employ travel nurses, is one of the requests the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions put forward to the premiers.

“We need to sit down, all of the provinces and the unions, and say let’s figure out a solution. Travel nursing is not a solution,” said Hazelton, while also acknowledging travel nurse opportunities are attractive to some people, who are paid three to four times as much as Nova Scotia nurses. 

“It’s not sustainable. It’s way, way too expensive. We’re spending millions and millions of dollars on travel nurses in this province and we can’t afford it.” 

“Travel nursing is not a solution.”

– Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union

At a media availability in Halifax on Tuesday, Premier Tim Houston said each province is trying to deal with the issues that arise from travel nurses. 

“There was agreement at the premiers’ table to revisit that issue on what might be possible around potentially capping the fees in some way, shape or form that we pay to travel nurses,” Houston said.

Houston acknowledged people have a right to be mobile and work “wherever they want” across Canada, noting there are different opportunities in each province.

“But we know … in the health-care system on the frontlines, when you have somebody who’s being paid a different amount than somebody who’s there day in and day out like the travel nurses tend to be, it can cause some friction on the floor,” Houston said. 

On Monday, Houston and several other premiers vowed they would also no longer poach health-care workers who are working in other provinces or territories. 

Hazelton said the nurses’ union is fortunate to meet with the premier and other health-care stakeholders every six to eight weeks to discuss what can be done to improve health care.

“I must say that most, if not all of the suggestions that are made are taken seriously and worked on to see if it’s doable,” she said.

Hazelton also said she’s pleased with the recent five-year contract the union signed with the province, which has resulted in a pay increase and nurse-to-patient ratios, and hopes it will result in the retention of nurses in Nova Scotia. 

But Hazelton said there needs to be a national approach to address the nursing shortage. 

“There are all kinds of options, but there has to be open dialogue and that’s not happening in most provinces in this country.”