'We don't know who they are': Union concerned over P.E.I.'s handling of international nursing recruits
Health minister calls recruitment trips to Dubai and Singapore money well spent
P.E.I. health officials are celebrating the results of recent overseas trips to recruit new nurses, but the union that's supposed to be representing them says the province isn't providing any information about who they are or where they're working.
"We can't get a hold of them. We don't know who they are," said Barbara Brookins, president of the P.E.I. Nurses' Union, which represents staff in the public health-care system.
"We need to know at what point they become our members, and then we also want to know what's happening to them in the meantime….
"We don't want these nurses to get out there, and be struggling in an area where the supports are not in place."
Officials with the province's Office of Immigration and Health P.E.I. conducted interviews with dozens of internationally educated nurses over the past couple of years, twice in Dubai and once in Singapore.
At the time, Health P.E.I. said it was grappling with a 20 per cent vacancy rate for all types of staff positions and a shortage of full-time workers.
The province said 28 job offers came out of the recruitment trip to Singapore and a total of 73 from the two trips to Dubai in 2023 and 2024. That's a total of 101 offers from the three trips.
P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane said the travel was money well spent, adding that the province plans to continue with its international recruitment efforts.
"Ultimately, we recognize we need more nurses in all parts of our health-care system, whether it be public or private," McLane said.
"Now that we have the setup in place… I think we should continue to do that, and I think it's good for our system in that we have a flow of nurses that come through on a kind of consistent basis."
The health minister said 75 of the 101 recruits are either working in the P.E.I. system already or taking part in one of two mandatory courses that allow them to work as registered nurses in Canada.
But McLane couldn't say how many are working in P.E.I.'s public health-care system.
'We've been short for a long time'
That's troubling for Brookins, whose union has been looking to track down the new nurses and offer them support.
"It's been very frustrating," she said. "The recruitment initially was by the Department of Health, and… now it's still in the process of going into Health P.E.I., so we're still having problems getting an actual person who can answer the questions."
Both of the Island's opposition parties have been trying to get a breakdown of the cost of the recruitment trips. CBC News has also asked for the numbers, but has not received them.
Liberal Party health critic Gord McNeilly said it's important that new nurses have a positive experience on P.E.I. or the province risks losing them to other regions.
"The messaging I've heard for two or three years is much rosier than I think the picture really is at the end. We're grateful and thankful that the nurses are here, but the process that we undertook… wasn't exactly smooth," he said.
"Our nurses are the glue to that system and we're short, and we've been short for a long time. This recruitment strategy is one piece, but it's not what this minister said… two years ago, and I don't think the numbers are where they need to be."
Provincial officials said they're not relying entirely on internationally trained nurses to fill the more than 200 jobs that are currently posted.
They've upped the number of seats at the UPEI School of Nursing, and 65 people will graduate from the four-year program this year. Health P.E.I. has already given job offers to 60 of them.
"We're going in the right direction. Obviously I want it to be faster, the public wants it to be faster, but we're increasing our workforce and that's what we try to do every day," McLane said.
"I think we have the board of the puzzle fairly well constructed, so hopefully it'll accelerate over the coming months and years."
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With files from Wayne Thibodeau