The president of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union is addressing concerns raised by nurses about long shifts and lack of vacation.
Janet Hazelton says for many years nurses have had issues taking vacations during the summer and the shortage of nurses increased this year due to COVID-19.
She says several hundred nurses were deployed to do vaccinations, tracing and testing, leading to strain on the acute care system.
“And what exacerbates it is when you have nurses working more than they ought to be working, more than their regular shifts or they’re not getting vacations, then their injuries go up. Then they’re off because they’re injured. So it’s just a cycle.”
Hazelton says that while all three main party leaders have committed to more nursing positions, they need a comprehensive plan.
“We have to talk about where we’re going to get those nurses. We have all kinds of vacancies in this province right now and no one is applying for them,” says Hazelton. “We have to look at things like increasing the seats. There’s a lot of interest in becoming a nurse, that’s not the problem. The problem is we don’t have the seats.”
She added that she would be looking for commitments to increase the number of seats in nursing programs.
At the beginning of July, the provincial Liberal government announced an addition of 62 permanent first-year seats at Cape Breton University and eight permanent first-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing seats at Dalhousie University’s Yarmouth campus. They state there are 471 first-year nursing seats across the province.
Tim Houston and the Tories stated in their Hope For Health plan that there are minimal residency seats for internationally trained students and increasing them is essential to recruitment.
Hazelton also addressed emergency room closures and what happens to nurses who are scheduled to work in an ER at the time. She saying that when an ER closes, the nurses are moved to another part of the building.
