Yukon health minister takes heat for rural nurse shortage

Yukon's health minister was on the defensive Thursday in the legislature, saying her government is doing its best to hire nurses at rural health centres.

"We can't control the recruitment process. It's very difficult to find nurses," said Minister Pauline Frost.

"The challenges we find ourselves in, it's most definitely not unique to one community." 

NDP MLA Kate White tabled a petition from the Yukon Employees Union, urging the government to "fully staff all of the Yukon's Community Health Centres, in order that no nurses are required to work alone."

White said nurses in rural communities typically have day-to-day shift duties, and then are also required to be on call around the clock.

"This is not sustainable, nor is it safe," White said.

She also said that health centres in other jurisdictions often require at least two nurses on shift, in order to open a health centre.

"If Yukon was subject to these same standards, many nursing stations would be closed regularly for extended periods of time," White said.

'Every reasonable measure'

White also asked about an agreement last spring between the YEU and the government, to ensure the health centres in Beaver Creek and Destruction Bay were each staffed with a full-time nurse. 

Frost said the government has "taken every reasonable measure to ensure that the vacancies have been filled, and when extra staff are available, we've relied on rescheduling other community nurses to provide backup."

"That sounds like, 'maybe some of the time,'" White replied.

• 2 remote Yukon nursing positions unfilled during busy summer season

Steve Geick, president of the YEU, confirms that there is no new nurse yet for Destruction Bay or Beaver Creek.

"They have never filled that position, I've never seen an ad for that position," he said.

Geick couldn't say how many other nursing positions are vacant across Yukon.

Try harder, says YEU

Geick also rejects Frost's claim that finding nurses is an issue beyond the government's control.

"They can control recruitment," he said. "We've talked to them many times about how they do their recruitment."

Geick acknowledges that government officials have attended job fairs across the country to recruit nurses, but says they've been going to the wrong ones.

There's no point going to major centres such as Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary or Montreal, he says.

"You are not going to find the type of nurses that you need to work in an 'expanded scope' in a community ...  I don't think they have ever hired a nurse at one of these job fairs."

Better to visit "natural jump-off points for northern nurses," he said — places like Winnipeg or Thunder Bay, Ont. — and be prepared to hire people on the spot.

"Send people that can actually make decisions to hire people, and get it done."