It is a difficult time to be an RN, nursing student, or recent graduate within the province.
On Tuesday, February 27th, the Registered Nurses’ Union (RNU) of Newfoundland and Labrador gathered at the Confederation Building for the “Profit Doesn’t Care!” rally, calling for an end to the privatization of healthcare within the province.
This transpired following a Globe & Mail release stating that Newfoundland spent nearly $36 million on travel nurses from April to August 2023. This is an over $1 million annual increase since pre-pandemic.
The RNU had two main protest demands:
- Government accountability
- An Auditor General investigation into the spending
This news has been met with animosity from individuals all over the province, nurses and non-nurses alike, demanding answers for the exorbitant spending. A February 20th VOCM poll concluded with a resounding 86% vote towards the Auditor General being called in for investigation.
On February 17th, the RNU issued a letter to Premier Furey and Minister Osborne, urging them to take action regarding the province-wide nursing crisis. The letter states:
“To fix the health care crisis, we need to fix the nursing shortage. Without enough registered nurses we can’t address the critical issues jeopardizing patient care in our province – we need more RNs to open long-term care beds, address the backlog of surgeries and procedures and improve wait times in our emergency rooms.”
“Solving the nursing shortage starts with retention. It’s critical that we not only recruit but retain the incredible, hard-working RNs who are currently providing health care in our province.”
RNs need a reason to stay within the province, and this is not being given to them.
There are currently over 700 nursing vacancies within Newfoundland and Labrador. Regardless, current MUN nursing school graduates are struggling to secure adequate postgraduate work, with many being given unsatisfactory temporary positions.
So, what’s the holdup?
Student view
A third-year nursing student at MUN, who requested to remain anonymous, says, “Less than 20% of [2023] nursing graduates in the province have a permanent full-time position, and yet there is still a demand for nurses and a shortage in staff.”
She stated that nursing students are often overlooked within the province, emphasizing their excessive amount of unpaid work hours.
“Since beginning my degree, I have recorded over 1400 hours of unpaid clinical work,” she says. “This is a demonstration of the underappreciation of student nurses by the government.”
She also described a class visit from two government officials last fall semester.
“They visited to show their appreciation for nursing students at MUN,” she explains. “They mentioned how the government of Newfoundland and Labrador is here for us in support of nurses and students. They also said that the government will prioritize their graduates and local students.”
She, and her classmates, took this as a plea to stay and work within the province. However, she feels that the values expressed in this meeting versus the government’s recent actions do not align.
She says, “It is disheartening when government representatives come to our class, tell us that they appreciate us and our work, and just months later, there are only a few graduates who have stable job positions, or job security, and the rest of the graduates who do decide to stay within the province will be looking for another position 3-5 months after starting their job. Working for a government that will say one thing, and whose actions demonstrate another, especially surrounding job security and a career, is not something that I am comfortable with if my value as a future RN is not being appreciated.”
When she began her nursing degree, she was constantly told that she would have no trouble finding a job, which initially felt true. She no longer feels this way.
She says, “Seeing the recent graduate employment numbers as someone who will start the application process later this year is not promising. Lately, I have been considering out-of-province positions for more stability. I used to think that I would be able to find a job and live comfortably as a new graduate here in the province, but with only 3 months of guaranteed full-time employment and the chance of having to reapply and reorient only months later is not comfortable for me and could cause an increased level of stress.”
Furey’s visit
Last year, Premier Furey spoke with The Muse about his visit to MUN in 2022, which he described as positive.
He spoke of the “letters of intent to job offers” that he issued to each member of the 2022 MUN nursing graduate class. Details regarding these job offers were notoriously vague, and he did not specify whether these were permanent, temporary, full-time, or casual positions, all of which are vastly different.
Regarding his discussions with MUN nursing students, he said:
“There was some good feedback about what their needs were, coming out of nursing school, what their desires were, and I think we took that back as feedback, and we’ll act on it.”
“Most encouraging for me was within the classes, there was a real spirit and desire of wanting to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
If these comments were taken as feedback, they were not acted upon. Further, the ‘spirit and desire’ to stay in NL may remain just that: a desire, not a feasible reality.
If the government does not improve the treatment of our hard-working RNs, and hopeful future RNs, as the RNU claimed in their letter, the healthcare crisis will never cease, and the quality of our province’s healthcare will remain on a steady decline. We need to demand better for our local nurses, students, and graduates.
