Neepawa takes cover off new nursing program in staff-challenged health region

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This article was published 22/01/2024 (594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new, two-year practical nursing program in western Manitoba is expected to make a dent in a severe nursing shortage that is driving regional health spending on for-profit agency staff to “exorbitant” levels.

A cohort of 20 students began their studies with Assiniboine Community College to become practical nurses at the new Neepawa Training Centre in January.

The program was first announced in February 2023 by the former Progressive Conservative government, which put up $2.1 million in operating and capital funding.

On Monday, officials cut the ribbon on the new training centre, a former RCMP detachment refurbished by the Town of Neepawa.

“Twenty nurses may seem like a small commitment when measured against the bigger picture, but (by) creating this facility let it be known that Neepawa is prepared to continue partnerships and be part of the solution,” Neepawa Mayor Brian Hedley said.

Assiniboine Community College president Mark Frison applauded the local municipality for investing in the training facility, which will host other training programs in the future.

Interest in the program was high when it was first announced last year, Frison said, but filling the program with local students took a major effort by the college.

“The biggest issue in access to post-secondary education in Manitoba is geography,” Frison said.

Prairie Mountain Health chief nursing officer Treena Slate said the Neepawa-based nursing program is expected to strengthen the local workforce, which has suffered from chronically high vacancy rates. The region is also preparing to open the new Neepawa Health Centre in 2025. It is nearly four times the size of the existing centre.

“We certainly don’t have enough nurses,” Slate said.

The regional health authority is the biggest user of for-profit, agency nurses in the province, spending over $22 million on temporary staff in the 2022-23 fiscal year, up $10.6 million from the year before. Agency nurse expenses for the current fiscal year were not made available by Shared Health Monday.

“I don’t think any health region wants to use agency nurses,” Slate said. “Prairie Mountain Health is certainly in a challenging situation when it comes to our vacancy rates. We often say that the further you are away from Winnipeg, the more difficulty there is in recruitment.”

In some communities in PMH, there are fewer young people joining the workforce, which complicates hiring efforts, Slate said. PMH stretches from Treherne west to the Saskatchewan border and from the U.S.-Canada border north to Duck Bay.

“It’s certainly not a situation we want to be in,” she said. “We certainly hope that with initiatives like expansion of ACC training programs throughout our region, that that will certainly help repair our high vacancy rates and diminish our use of agencies.”

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson decried the health region’s spending on agency nurses as “exorbitant.”

“We hope this announcement will assist in recruiting and retaining nurses to enter and remain in the public system and stem the tide of public money spent on for-profit health care,” Jackson said Monday.

She acknowledged the need for agency staff at times, especially in remote areas, but lamented the impact the spending has on the province’s capacity to rebuild the public health system.

“This announcement, we hope, is one that takes that for-profit investment and puts it back where it belongs, which is into the public system,” she said.

“Whether that be money allocated to better training or education, money spent bolstering supports for mental health or money spent to retain or recruit all the Manitoba nurses we can is a move in the right direction.”

Premier Wab Kinew said the NDP government’s goal is to reduce health authority spending on agency nurses province-wide, which reached $60 million in 2022-23. In opposition, the NDP repeatedly criticized the PCs for agency nurse spending, characterizing it as out of control and leading to lower-quality health care.

“That will be accomplished by us staffing up the public system, not by issuing mandates,” said Kinew, who was in the region with members of the NDP government for a caucus retreat.

He did not offer a target for reducing agency-nurse use, but said it will take a comprehensive, multi-year strategy to repair the health system. Training 20 more nurses to join the front lines sends a signal to others that help is on the way, he added.

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The premier also appealed to people to consider a career in health care.

“We can credibly say that we have a plan and we are on a path to improving work-life conditions and work-life balance for the nurses who are already working in the system, and when we do that that’s how we recruit people who are currently working for private nursing agencies,” Kinew said.

PC health critic Kathleen Cook said the training program and facility are welcome, but more must be done to add health-care workers in the short term, including a “concrete plan” from the government to address staffing shortages.

“Despite crying foul about agency nurse spending while in opposition and campaigning almost solely on health care during the election, now that they’re in government the NDP still have no plan to attract and retain nurses, doctors and other health-care professionals,” the Roblin MLA said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca