Vitalit, Horizon hire 'travel nurses' to help during shortage

Travel nursesare being used by both New Brunswick health networks to help address the nursing shortage.

These aretrained nurses who work for independent agencies. They are sent to different places to work on a temporary basis.

Hiring travel nurses costs more "without a doubt," according to Health Minister Bruce Fitch, but he said it also costs money to close a hospital, close a wing, or not be able to offer certain services.

"It's an investment in the health-care system here in the province of New Brunswick," Fitch said during a news scrum with reporters.

Hospitals across both health networks have faced closures, reduced hoursand interruptions in servicesbecause ofstaffing shortages.

Fitch said the use of travel nurses is not forever, but "it's needed right now to make sure that the existing staff have the support in order to keep the facilities open, keep the facilities runningand to make sure when people present themselves that they will get that service."

Margaret Melanson, interim president and CEO of Horizon Health Network,said that over the summerHorizoncontacted private agencies to get helpin emergency departments.

She said it'snot a decisiontaken lightly, but the health networkwanted to provide relief to nurses "working daily under very challenging and difficult circumstances."

She said there are fewer than 10 travel nurses working with Horizon at the moment.

Brenda Kinney, Horizon'svice-president and chief nursing officer, saidtravel nurses have been employedin emergency departments and intensive care units, and at the moment, they areproviding relief at the Saint John Regional Hospital and the Moncton Hospital.

She added that Horizon continues to "aggressively recruit" nurses, leading to 296 registered nurses hired since the beginning of April.

'Last resort'

Sharon Smyth-Okana, senior vice-president of clinical programs and nursing at Vitalit Health Network, said in an emailed statement, in response to a CBC News request for an interview, that the use of travel nurses is recent for Vitalit, with the first contracts being signed in July 2022.

She said in September, the nurses began providing services at the Campbellton Regional Hospital and the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton.

"It is important to say that hiring travel nurses is not a practice advocated by the Network.However, our priority is to ensure the continued delivery of quality care," said Smyth-Okana. "We do it only as a last resort and for the shortest period of time possible."

'Band-Aid solution'

Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses' Union, said travel nurses are not the solution to the nursing shortage, but that there is "no single answer."

"The sad part is that we had been sounding the alarm bells for decades that we were going to be in thissituation," said Doucet.

She doesn't believe there are enough travel nurses currently in the New Brunswick health-care system to make the impact that the government is hoping for. And she said it can also often be difficult for travel nurses to come into a new location with little support ororientation in place.

Doucet said she's been given a couple of figures in terms of what level of pay travel nurses are being offered to work in the province, depending on the agency and which sector.

But travel nurses are being offered much more per hour than what nurses currently in New Brunswick are making,Doucet said in an interview,butshe did not have details aboutprovisions for benefits, pension, sick days and overtime.

She said she's heard figures around $120 per hour for long-term care travel nurses, and$85 per hour for acute-care travel nurses.

CBC News tried to confirm the hourly wageof travel nurses in comparison to the wages for New Brunswick nurses. The Department of Healthsaid the travel nurse contracts are with the regional health authorities, so they would have that information.Vitalitsaid in an email they areunable to provide the hourly rate paid to travel nurses, "because the companies establish global rates that include, in addition to the salary paid to nurses, administrative fees."

This is something that could "potentially sour the morale in the workplace," said Doucet, noting that it could be tough for nurses to work next to agency nurses knowing about the different pay for the same work.

Travel nurses are notthe answer, said Doucet,and thisis just another "Band-Aid solution."

She said there needs to be serious investments into retention and recruiting. There also needs to be more accessibility for people wanted to go into licensed practical nursing or registered nursing programs.