Alberta will be short 6,400 nurses, union warns

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=e6aecdc1-9c53-4b58-9b7b-8668e5503c41

Jason Markusoff, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Monday, May 12, 2008

EDMONTON - Alberta will be short by 6,400 registered nurses in five years if the government doesn't intensify its push to recruit and keep more of the health-care workers, a rally was told today.

More than 200 registered nurses gathered outside the legislature at noon. Many carried life-sized cardboard cutouts of other nurses who couldn't join the rally because they were either scheduled to work or were called in to work to cover off staff shortages.

To mark International Nurses Day, the United Nurses of Alberta publicly issued a strategy to Premier Ed Stelmach, demanding better working conditions to entice part-time nurses to add hours. While the government aims to boost the total of nursing graduate spots, the union said the province must do more to ensure enough student spaces are available this fall.


About 200 nurses and supporters rallied at the International Nurses Day rally held at the Alberta Legislature on Monday.
Larry Wong/Edmonton Journal

Labour leaders say there's already a huge nurse shortage - on its own, Capital Health is short by 200 to 300 nurses. Alberta's population boom and the coming wave of retirements will worsen the problem, meaning the province will be 6,400 RNs behind its 1992 levels, before the round of Ralph Klein-era health cuts.

"We need to interrupt the downward spiral of shortages- people working extra shifts, and still working short-staffed," union president Heather Smith told the rally.

The provincial government has tried to ease the crunch with an aggressive foreign recruiting drive in places like Australia, England and the Philippines. But immigration paperwork delays are making 1,000 willing foreigners - and their very willing hospital employers - wait several months.

FULL story at link.