New Brunswick nursing shortage hurting efforts to train the next generation

The number of students enrolled in nursing at the University of New Brunswick has dropped, but the acting dean of nursing at UNB says it’s because the institution has had to cut the number of spaces in its program, and not because of a shortage in demand from students.

“We have no fewer applicants for the nursing program than we have ever had,” Patricia Seaman said.

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Seaman says the program has a waiting list of people wanting to take their Bachelor of Nursing program at either the Moncton or Federicton campuses.

But right now they can only accept 40 per cent of qualified applicants because four years ago they had to cut the number of seats at both schools by more than a third, a total of 50 seats. The shortage of nurses felt at hospitals had a direct impact on their ability to teach.

“We did not have enough faculty members to teach, so we were relying on nurses from practice to help supplement our teaching,” Seaman said.

She said the lack of practicing nurses left fewer opportunities to contract nurses to help them teach the program. They had no choice but to cut the program seats. The shortage of nurses, she said, also impacted their clinical training.

“As hospital were experiencing the nursing shortage, they had to close units or redesign units, which reduced the practice sites that we could send out students to” Seaman said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "As hospital were experiencing the nursing shortage, they had to close units or redesign units, which reduced the practice sites that we could send out students to" Seaman said.

WATCH: Nursing shortage forces temporary shutdown of emergency services in Moncton

1:55 Nursing shortage forces temporary shutdown of emergency services in Moncton

Seaman is now calling on the province to address the nursing shortage by making a 10-year commitment to fund faculty for its four-year nursing program in Fredericton and its two-year program in Moncton, both of which are she says are still going strong.

This week Benoit Bourque, the province’s Minister of Health acknowledged the lack of nurses is a concern. “We know that that situation is coming. We are aware of it and we are working actively to find solutions.”