A series of funding announcements by neighbouring Nova Scotia caught the eye of New Brunswick Tuesday. The buzz has left the province looking to implement similar strategies, and nurses are considering jumping ship.
Nova Scotia is offering nurses up to $20,000 in bonuses to keep them in the province’s public health system — or to encourage them to return.
Nova Scotia will give all full-time nurses in long-term care homes and hospitals a $10,000 bonus, and they will be offered an additional $10,000 bonus if they sign an agreement to continue working full time for two years.
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N.S. offering nurses $10,000 bonuses to keep them from leaving health system
The province will also award $10,000 to Nova Scotia nurses who have left the public system but who agree to return and sign a two-year, full-time contract by March 31.
According to the New Brunswick Nurses Union, the cash injection has left some nurses considering moving across the border.
“I expect that some of them are going to leave,” said the vice-president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, Maria Richard.
“If you’re a nurse working in Sackville, and the border is 20 minutes away and you have the chance of earning $10,000, why not?”
She said that Premier Blaine Higgs doesn’t respect New Brunswick nurses, adding that compliments given by Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston isn’t something that Higgs returns.
Richard said that she’d been fielding calls from nurses in the province who are looking for answers from the provincial government.
“What message is primer Higgs sending to our nurses right now? It totally boggles my mind in which direction we’re going.”
The Nurses Association of New Brunswick underscored a “sense of urgency expressed by stakeholders over this past week,” noting that the group met with the provincial government and has put down the rails on a new registration province for internationally regulated nurses.
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N.S. nursing regulator to speed up process to accept applicants from seven countries
“In partnership with regulators in British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia, will pilot a new registration process for internationally educated nurses (IENs) aimed at eliminating months — or even years — from the application journey,” said their website.
“The new registration process will be available in early 2023.”
This comes on the heels of Nova Scotia’s nursing regulator reducing the timeline for nurses from other provinces and seven foreign countries to be licensed to practise in the province.
A joint statement to Global News from New Brunswick Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder, Health Minister Bruce Fitch and Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard said that New Brunswick has asked the Nurses Association of New Brunswick to “act quickly” on aligning with Nova Scotias implementation date.
“We have asked the NANB to harmonize with Nova Scotia’s approach and explore and consider additional Francophone countries beyond those identified by Nova Scotia last week,” the statement wrote.
“We look forward to further conversations with NANB in the coming weeks and we remain committed to doing everything within our power to ensure New Brunswickers get the health care they need.”
— with files from the Canadian Press
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