New Brunswick’s health minister Bruce Fitch says he was caught by surprise earlier this week when Nova Scotia announced a new bonus program for nurses.
The Atlantic provinces have said they want to work together to find solutions for staffing shortages in the health-care system, but Fitch feels that the new incentive program offered by New Brunswick’s provincial neighbour put others in the region in a tough spot.
“That was a disappointment, I’m not going to say anything different,” Fitch told reporters Wednesday.
“Not to speak for the premier but I think he was disappointed as well because it does put a lot of pressure on the other provinces.”
Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston announced earlier this week that the province would offer $10,000 bonuses for all full-time nurses in long-term care homes and hospitals, with an additional $10,000 bonus for those who agree to stay for another two years. Nurses working outside the public system are also being offered $10,000 if they agree to return. It’s expected to cost about $350 million.
The New Brunswick Nurses Union has been calling for some sort of bonus or incentive program for some time and was hoping to see that answered in Tuesday’s provincial budget. While the province announced that it would bump wages for personal support workers in home support and special care homes, there was no incentive program announced for nurses.
“It’s not only a disrespect to our nurses, but in a way, it’s also a disrespect to New Brunswickers that are asking this government for a good health-care system,” said Maria Richard, vice-president of the N.B. Nurses Union.
Premier Blaine Higgs said that he doesn’t want to get into a bidding war for the limited pot of health-care workers in the region through competing incentive programs or wage escalations.
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“If we’re just going to kind of move people between provinces we’re not going to solve the problem, we’re just going to make it more difficult for each other,” he said.
Finance minister Ernie Steeves told reporters that money isn’t the only factor and that the province wants to make itself more competitive in other ways. That sentiment was echoed by Higgs who said the province is working hard to improve working conditions.
“We have to understand what nurses and health-care workers are going through in the workplace,” he said.
“I think at the end of the day the bigger issue is can we make the workplace (reflect) why they became a nurse to begin with – the passion that you see in nurses – and I think that is the underlying issue that we have is they’re feeling overwhelmed and they need support.”
Higgs said the province does have an existing recruitment incentive program. Candidates who accept a “hard-to-recruit” position are eligible for up to $10,000 if they agree to stay for three years. Horizon defines “hard-to-recruit” as a position that has been posted externally and internally with no successful candidates.
But where the Nova Scotia program differs is in who it’s aimed at. While New Brunswick offers incentives aimed at recruiting new staff, the Nova Scotia bonus program is intended to retain the staff they already have.
Green leader David Coon said that difference is crucial as the province continues to shed mid-career nurses at an alarming rate.
“All the discussions are about how do we recruit more nurses, well we need to retain our nurses and this is the type of thing that exactly will help us retain our nurses. It will recognize their value, be a big boost to morale and then we can work on working conditions,” he said.
One of the ways the province is looking to improve retention is by recruiting. Fitch told reporters that one of the biggest stresses on the system is the lack of staff and believes that addressing shortages will go a long way to improving working conditions.
“When RNs show up for a shift and their short a number of people that makes it very very difficult, it makes it very very hard,” he said.
Tuesday’s budget earmarked $29.7 million to “help address recruitment and retention challenges.” Fitch said that money will bolster the province’s international recruitment efforts, sending teams overseas to convince people to take jobs in the province. Fitch couldn’t point to how the money would directly fund retention efforts.
Liberal health critic Rob McKee said the new money simply isn’t enough.
“If we’re gonna sit on the sideline we’re just going to get further behind and this is just more evidence of that. We need to step up our game,” he said.
“I think in this budget there’s something like $30 million for recruitment and retention, that’s just a drop in the bucket.”