No easy solutions to nurse exodus

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/05/2024 (497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government’s heavy-handed attempt to reduce the province’s reliance on private agency nurses is not without risk.

Under a new collective agreement with nurses ratified earlier this month by most bargaining units, nurses will be prevented in some cases from working in both the private and public systems.

It’s unclear how many nurses that may affect since the province has not released data showing the number of nurses working in both systems. However, the imposition of such a ban is an acknowledgment that it occurs frequently enough to warrant a policy response.

But is it the right response? At a time when nurses are asking for more flexibility in the workforce, including less forced overtime and greater control over scheduling, is this coercive policy the most effective option?

According to a memorandum of understanding that forms part of the new collective agreement, health regions “shall not retain or hire as an agency nurse” anyone who is also an employee of the health region.

That means nurses who normally work through a regional health authority will no longer be able to pick up extra shifts through a private agency if those shifts are at a facility in their home RHA.

It’s a rigid approach that could backfire on government. If the purpose of the ban is to discourage nurses from working through private agencies by forcing them to choose between the latter and the public system, some nurses may opt out of the public system altogether.

Given the more flexible hours, better pay and guarantee of no forced overtime through private agencies, who could blame them?

There are no easy answers to the growing problem of nurses leaving the public system to work for private agencies. The factors behind the exodus are complex and have been developing for years. Nurses are fed up with the lack of respect they get on the job, the dangerous working conditions, inflexible hours and forced overtime.

The financial cost of the exodus is exorbitant. The provincial government spent $56 million on private nursing in the first three quarters of 2023-24, about triple what it was three years earlier.

Manitoba is not alone in this problem. Other provinces such as Ontario and Quebec are facing the same challenges and each is responding in different ways. Quebec recently passed legislation that would ban private nursing altogether in public facilities by 2026. It’s a more extreme response than Manitoba’s and one that seems unworkable given the need to fill scheduling gaps even when staffing levels are at optimal levels.

Should Manitoba’s plan backfire and result in some nurses opting out of the public system, the province could end up paying even more to private nursing agencies. It appears that’s a risk the NDP government is willing to take.

It may not be a well calculated one. Nurses are looking for improved working conditions, better hours and a more respectful working environment. Given the mood of nurses these days and the relatively weak support for the last collective agreement (nearly 49 per cent of nurses voted against it, while nurses at Health Sciences Centre rejected their offer by almost 57 per cent), forcing some to choose between private agencies and the public system may not be the most effective strategy.

Better pay, more flexible scheduling and improved working conditions in the public system for nurses would seem like a more effective solution — more carrot and less stick.