The head of the Medical Union wants Canada’s chief auditor to find out how many private contract nurses work for health authorities across the country, doing the same job as staff colleagues, paying them much more.
Linda Silas of the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions asked Karen Hogan to conduct a review with auditors in each province to determine if recruiting and retaining nurses is being undermined by higher salaries for performers.
Contract nurses end up receiving public money, even though they work for private agencies.
“The astronomical increase in the use of nurses hired by private agencies over the past few years is a significant and potentially dangerous challenge to the sustainability of our public health system,” she said in a letter to Hogan, who has the right to audit areas that they do not have their own chief auditors.
Silas wants to know the average pay rates for nurses in each jurisdiction.
“It’s about tracking money,” she said in an interview.
“We currently have thousands and thousands of vacancies, and the provinces and territories are struggling to find appropriate strategies for retaining and recruiting staff.”
British Columbia announced plans this week to speed up the accreditation of nurses educated abroad, who will also be eligible for various financial aids, such as scholarships to improve their English language skills.
Ontario and Manitoba, for example, have also introduced measures to attract nurses trained abroad.
Ian Misho, a spokesman for Hogan’s office, said the letter was received on Thursday, but it was too early to respond.
The federation also expected to ask nurses this week to complete a study on why they work for agencies or would consider doing so, Silas said.
The advantages could include higher pay, flexible schedules and greater mobility, she said, while the disadvantages could be lack of benefits or job security.
“We tell every employer, you have to contact every nurse who says, ‘I’m going to leave or work for an agency, or work somewhere else.’ Ask, “What will it take to keep you?”
Aman Greval, president of the BC Union of Nurses, said many nurses welcome colleagues from the agency who can alleviate heavy workloads.
Meanwhile, nurses in the Vancouver area or Vancouver Island may temporarily work for the agency in places such as Nunavut or Fort St. John, Greual said.
But she said this was not an ideal scenario.
“It’s a bit of a ‘Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’ situation, because if they leave an employer to take care of agencies, we’re still at a net loss.”
Union members say they receive significantly higher pay as private performers than as nurses, sometimes $ 25 an hour more, Greval said. Emergency trainees may also prefer the autonomy offered in remote communities, she added.
However, the pay gap could be divisive, she said.
“This pay gap for doing the same job is something that nurses (staff) don’t like. However, at the end of the day, the nurses are very happy that someone is working next to them so that they do not work on their own. “
Work-life balance is a major reason why nurses leave contract jobs, Greval said.
Although nurses who have worked shifts of up to 16 hours can be compensated with more days off, many newer employees prefer the regularity of an eight-hour workday.
Employers need to seek more information from nurses about the type of schedules they are willing to accept, she said.
The need for nurses in agencies would be significantly reduced if more people who want to enter the profession work in wards instead of being on waiting lists to enter nursing schools, Greval said.
“Even during the pandemic, they wanted to deal with nurses,” she said.
The British Columbia government recently added 602 positions for nursing students, but Greval said that should be increased quickly because it will take years for new students to start working while demand continues to grow.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 22, 2022.
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