Vitalité Health Network says its nurse recruitment strategy is producing “tangible results,” yet data provided by the network shows significant staffing shortages remain across the north.
Nearly 75 per cent of the network’s vacant nursing positions are in Acadie-Bathurst, Restigouche, which includes Campbellton and Dalhousie, and the Northwest zone, with includes Edmundston and Grand Falls, according to data as of Sept. 30.
Still, at the network’s board meeting last week, CEO France Desrosiers said the team has broken recruitment records the past three years.
Based on the network’s own numbers, a large portion of hires are in Beauséjour, the zone that includes Moncton and is Vitalité’s only southern health zone.
It’s clear to the New Brunswick Nurses’ Union that there is still a glaring imbalance in adequate health services for patients in the north.
“Folks in the north feel like they’ve been forgotten about,” union president Paula Doucet said. “There’s always been this north and south divide, but that’s the reality.”
Vitalité recently said it needed nurse practitioners for a limited time to work as registered nurses in the Campbellton Regional Hospital ER. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
There were 130 vacant permanent nursing positions across the network as of Sept. 30.
And it’s still a particular struggle, the network said in a statement to CBC News, to recruit nurses in the Restigouche region.
WATCH | Looming vacancies makes health care inaccessible in the north, nurses union says:
Majority of nurse vacancies are in northern N.B., Vitalité data shows
New Brunswick’s francophone health network says its recruitment efforts are showing tangible results, but data shows three-quarters of the network’s nursing vacancies are in the north.
“As a francophone health network, we recruit from a more limited pool of candidates and face strong competition, especially from Quebec, for the same French-speaking health-care professionals,” the email statement read.
There are even more unfilled positions in the Northwest zone, with 44 openings.
Doucet acknowledged that both networks have made a “vigorous” effort to hire more nurses, and she reflected on 2023 data that showed more than 1,200 nursing vacancies across the province.
She said Vitalité’s struggles in the north could be related to smaller hiring pools, and to hospitals being located in smaller, more urban areas.
The francophone network runs 11 hospitals and 44 clinics, health centres and other offices.
The francophone network runs 11 hospitals and 44 clinics, health centres and other offices. Doucet said nurses are more likely to stay in urban centres such as Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton after they finish their studies there.
But the network can do more, Doucet said, including improving morale for staff on the ground.
Some nurses distrust Vitalité upper management, union says
Survey results presented at Vitalité’s most recent board meeting showed its employees rated their experiences getting recognition at work as 6.5 out of 10.
Assistant CEO Patrick Parent said it’s a priority for the network to improve that score.
But Doucet said she thinks 6.5 is generous based on the stories she hears from members concerning their relationships at work.
Some nurses working for Vitalité “talk about the difficulties that they have with upper management, and the level of distrust and the level of disrespect,” Doucet said.
A public meeting by the network’s board of directors was held in Moncton on Oct. 27. (Pascal Raich-Nogue/Radio-Canada)
She said she hears complaints on a regular basis from hospitals and clinics across the network.
In one instance, Doucet said, nurses told her the network refused to provide clear direction in writing when employees asked for it.
“You question the very people that are providing patient care,” she said.
In another instance, she said, some restigouche managers felt pressure by directors to carry out orders they didn’t think were in the best interest of patients.
Until the network finds remedies for the alleged distrust, Doucet said, staff recruitment and retention in the north won’t improve.
CBC News asked Vitalité Friday to respond to the claims and has not yet heard back.
Doucet also believes New Brunswick should follow Nova Scotia’s lead in a mandated nurse-to-patient ratios to help nurses here manage the stress of their workloads.
Horizon hires more nurses in urban centres
Since January of last year, Horizon has hired 1,462 nurses, according to Kerry Kennedy, the network’s executive director of talent acquisition. Vitalité hired 558 in that same period.
Most of Horizon’s recruits were in Moncton, where 350 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses were hired in total.
Horizon also hired 495 in Saint John, 471 in Fredericton and 146 in Miramichi.
It currently counts 66 external nursing vacancies.
Vitalité’s services are comparatively smaller in scale than its anglophone counterpart.
Horizon runs 12 hospitals and more than 100 medical facilities, clinics and office, according to its website.
It offers services in Fredericton, Miramichi, Moncton, Saint John and the Upper River Valley which covers more of the central-western part of the province.