Horizon Health tries to lure more nurses with nationwide recruitment

A shortage of nurses in New Brunswick has prompted Horizon Health Network to launch a national recruitment effort to fill vacant positions over the next five years.

And the action plan doesn't come a moment too soon.

On Saturday night, the Moncton Hospital had to close the non-acute-care section of its ER for at least eight hours and divert ambulances to the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont hospital for about two hours because of a staff shortage.

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"When situations arise like we had on Saturday, the ER staff and the physicians look at their best options to provide that safest patient care possible with the resources that are available," Nancy Parker, executive director of the Moncton Hospital, said Friday. 

Parker said the Moncton Hospital, like hospitals across the province and country, is experiencing a nursing shortage.

As a result, Horizon's goal is to recruit 320 nurses a year in the next five years and has expanded its recruitment nationwide.

"As with any profession, we have unexpected sick calls and staff off with surgeries, maternity leaves," she said.

Parker said the recruitment goal is based on retirements and the loss of staff who take other jobs.

A competitive market

She said Horizon already recruits from new graduates of universities across the province and the Maritimes. The network also takes advantage of career fairs across Canada and social media, and has had some response from nurses in Western Canada.

"We know that a lot of nurses will be retiring over the next few years and we're an aging workforce," Parker said.

"It is a very competitive market and we're enhancing our recruitment strategies to ensure we're part of that competition."

Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, has said the temporary reduction in services is the tip of the iceberg for hospitals in New Brunswick.

"We are on the cusp of a very severe nursing shortage here in New Brunswick and we've been saying for many years this needs to be looked at, there needs to be strategies in place to address this issue," Doucet said.  

The increased staffing pressures come four years after the University of New Brunswick cancelled its four-year nursing program in Moncton.

UNB moved the program to the Fredericton campus and replaced the Moncton program with a two-year advanced standing program in nursing for students who already have university credits.

 At the time, there were fears that losing the local program would hurt the ability of the two local hospitals to recruit graduates.