Agency nurse losses hit record high – Winnipeg Free Press

Manitoba has spent more than $56 million on private agency nurses hired to fill staffing vacancies in the first nine months of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The most recent figures provided by Shared Health include spending through December 31. Although data for the latest quarter through March 31 is not yet available, spending is on pace for another record high.

Agency nurses will cost the province a total of $60 million in 2022-2023, and spending on travel nurses is at an all-time high.

Regional spending of nearly $21 million is highest in the Prairie Highlands region, where the health authority is responsible for filling nursing shifts at many small, rural hospitals in a large part of the province more than 500 kilometers north of Pelican Rapids. to Cartwright in the south, Treherne in the east and Melita in the west. This area also includes Dauphin and Brandon.

In addition to using the provincial nurse pool, the health district was “forced” to use agency nurses to serve this large geographic area, Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said in an emailed statement Thursday.

Officials are actively working to increase student nursing placements and increase recruitment and retention by providing job opportunities for undergraduate student nurses, as well as seeking internationally educated nurses and medical assistants to fill gaps, Slate said.

The health district offers grants to students and financial incentives for nurses to try to increase the number of shifts they work, she said.

The health authority is also offering mentorship programs and trying to bring job opportunities to the provincial floating pool through postings, he said.

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the agency's costs are “shocking,” especially given the cost of overtime in the state system.

A union has compiled data showing Manitoba public sector nurses worked more than a million hours of overtime last year, but private agency nurse costs continue to rise.

“It's amazing the amount of money coming out of the public purse for agency workers in this province,” Jackson said, adding that he called for a permanent retention plan to encourage nurses to stay in the public sector.

“We have nurses going to agencies, which is costing more and more money, and our deficit in the state system is getting worse all the time.”

The provincial government said recruiting and retaining health professionals, including nurses, is a top priority.

Agency nurses have talked before Free press They noted that they continued their private agency work to improve work-life balance, not the big paycheck.

Jackson said he would like to see a more detailed retention and hiring plan.

“I'm really looking forward to seeing that because until we do that, we're never going to be able to stabilize staff and we're always going to be dependent on overtime and agency workers as our primary staffing tool,” he said.

“I think it's completely against the health care system.”

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