Doreen Hocko-Mahony has worked as a senior nurse in Labrador for 23 years. She says incentives from the provincial government alone aren’t enough to lure her back to Labrador. (Bailey White/CBC)
A nurse from Happy Valley-Goose Bay who now works in Nova Scotia’s health system says Newfoundland and Labrador’s latest incentives for health professionals aren’t worth the mandatory overtime and added stress that would come with them .
Doreen Hocko-Mahony worked for Labrador-Grenfell Health as a registered nurse for 23 years, but made what she said was a difficult decision to move to Nova Scotia in 2019.
Although she is proud of her care in her home province, she said it was impossible to find a work-life balance and called herself a “victim of the system”.
“One day I just decided, you know, I needed to make some positive change. Because I had a six-year-old at the time and my fear was that I wouldn’t live long enough to see her grow up,” Hauko-Mahony told CBC News from Bridgewater, NS
She quickly reviewed the incentives announced by Health Secretary Tom Osborne earlier this month to attract health professionals. The incentives, announced under the province’s Come Home Year brand, offer return-to-work arrangements to eligible doctors, nurses and paramedics who have lived outside the province for at least six months.
Return-to-work agreements vary by profession, with eligible physicians offering $100,000 for a five-year agreement and primary care paramedics and registered nurses offering $50,000 for a three-year return-to-duty agreement — in addition to each another incentive offered by the provincial government.
However, Howco-Mahoney says the money won’t improve her quality of life outside the system — and mandated overtime put in place to address the province’s shortage of available professionals is a major deterrent.
She makes less money in Nova Scotia than in Labrador, she said, but she feels more empowered and is happier overall working in Nova Scotia.
“I accept that I make less money in Nova Scotia, but I am not authorized to work. The schedule allows for more flexibility, there are more scheduling options. So you feel more empowered in your workplace… I feel very valued and respected here,” she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of people come to Labrador, I’ve seen them disenfranchised and miserable.”
Hawco-Mahoney says she hopes more can be done to help people in the system who face mandatory overtime and allow for an appropriate work-life balance.
“Last generation, we lived to work. We are in changing times, the new professionals in the system, they are doing it right. They work to live.”
Health Secretary Tom Osborne says hiring more nurses and other health professionals would help ease the strain on workers currently working in the health system. (Danny Arenso/CBC)
Hocko-Mahoney shared her concerns directly with Osborne in a letter to which she said the minister responded by asking what it would take to bring her home to Newfoundland and Labrador.
“Obviously we want to see our health professionals stay and we understand there is work to be done,” Osborne told reporters in the House of Commons on Thursday. “We listen, we respond. I can tell, you know, this is not going to be fixed overnight.”
Osborne said Come Home Year initiatives have attracted some home health professionals, but the provincial government is also working to ease the need for mandatory overtime by increasing recruitment efforts.
“We need more nurses working side by side with the nurses that are there. We need more health professionals working side-by-side with the health professionals who are in the system to help lift the load,” he said.
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
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