The Manitoba government announced Friday more than $123 million in funding for several initiatives aimed at retaining and recruiting nurses.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon said she hopes the changes will help end mandated overtime and add 2,000 more health-care professionals to the system.
The initiatives include more money for nurses working weekends, part-time nurses working full-time hours, and nurses who stay in their jobs past retirement age or come back to nursing after they’ve retired.
“Nurses are an incredibly valued member of the health-care workforce who provide critical services under sometimes extraordinary pressures,” said Gordon.
“These incentives improve nurse staffing where there are high demands and needs in the health-care system such as weekend coverage.”
Other initiatives include a provincial float pool to support nurse staffing needs across the province, as well as a “refer-a-nurse” program, and travel and wellness incentives for nurses.
Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson called the announcement a “very necessary and positive step” toward addressing recruitment and retention issues in Manitoba.
“We will always work diligently and share our ideas and approaches to get our health-care system back to where it needs to be,” Jackson said in a release Friday.
“Nurses are problem-solvers and we are anxious to develop and see the implementation of further effective measures for all nurses to solve the many challenges of our nursing human resource crisis.”