The Department of Health says more than 370 nurses have been recruited into the NL health system since April of 2023, and have already started work in the province, but the number of nursing vacancies still exceeds 700 according to the latest stats.
According to the department, of the 370 nurses hired in the last year, 110 are from countries like India, the Philippines and Nigeria.
The system is also awaiting the arrival of some 100 nurses who were offered jobs in this province through a recent recruitment mission to India. Those nurses are currently working through the process towards examination, licensure and immigration requirements before their arrival.
The Department of Health says 30 Jamaicans are also undergoing training to become Licensed Practical Nurses. That program includes 12 weeks of online training in Jamaica, followed by 12 weeks of clinical training in this province before candidates are able to apply for their LPN licence.
Despite those efforts the number of nursing vacancies in the province is only down marginally. There were 752 nursing vacancies in NL in October of 2022, a year later the number was 715.
The Department says in recent years more people have been leaving the nursing profession than have been hired, due in part to retirements.
(Yvette Coffey File Photo)
Meanwhile, Health Minister Tom Osborne says he wasn’t aware of the Nurses’ Union’s request for a vacancy report until it was reported in the media.
RNU President Yvette Coffey says they have been after the Department of Health to get them a report on vacancy numbers since the fall, and have received no satisfaction.
Osborne says he has not heard from Coffey directly, but the department is working on compiling the numbers and getting it to her.
Osborne reminds that just because there are over 700 vacancies, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t people doing the jobs.
He says travel nurses are filling many of those vacancies. He says the province wants to move away from their reliance on travel nurses, but until they can recruit enough people that the vacancy rate goes down they are a “necessary evil.”
