Terrace city council has held back from fully endorsing a call to add local nurses to a program of paying bonuses to have them stay on the job.
The request came from a regional B.C. Nurses’ Union regional representative who said there is not only a challenge in recruitment, but in keeping nurses here once they sign on.
Nurses in other communities in northern B.C. can receive as much as $2,000 every three months, said Teri Forster in a letter addressed council and discussed at its June 12 meeting.
“While the amount is not a significant amount of money, it is an incentive to take a permanent position and provide stability to the health care system,” she wrote.
“Despite the staffing challenges seen in Terrace, and the staffing needs for the new hospital build, workers in your community have not received or been offered this retention bonus,” Forster added.
Forster said staffing shortages in Terrace and resulting pressure on remaining nurses has had several of them leave to work for private companies which then are contracted by health authorities to fill vacant positions.
“Many of these temporary nurses are paid two to three times the rate of local workers,” said Forster.
She said Northern Health spent $18.8 million on private nurses, also called agency nurses, in the fiscal year 2021-2022.
Although council voted to receive and file Forster’s correspondence, councillor Chris Apps said he looks forward to learning more about what recruitment and retention programs are in place.
Councillor Sarah Zimmerman said a recent Northern Health briefing she and councillor Brian Downie attended revealed a number of strategies to find and keep nurses.
But she noted that lack of child care and housing shortages, both of which have been raised by council as city-wide crucial issues, are impediments to health care recruiting.
Mayor Sean Bujtas acknowledged both a nursing and doctor shortage in Terrace, calling the situation “catastrophic”.
“I think it is a lot worse here than it is in a lot of other communities,” he said.
“It is definitely something we need to talk to the government about.”
Subsequent information from Northern Health confirmed that the provincial government provided it with $6.38 million in Sept. 2021 to pay employees to stay on the job in Hudson’s Hope, Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Hazelton, Prince Rupert and, more recently, Haida Gwaii.
“With this incentive, Northern Health has been able to increase the regular baseline staff by 4.8 per cent in participating communities,” the authority added in a provided statement in calling the bonus plan a prototype.
The bonuses range from $1,200 to $2,000 per quarter depending upon community, department and occupation.
Northern Health said the prototype is being evaluated but bid not indicate if Terrace might be included.
Information released at Northern Health’s June board meeting confirmed the high level of vacancies in the north.
Fully 20 per cent of what Northern Health calls baseline positions are vacant.
While 12 per cent of B.C.’s population lives in rural and remote areas, they are served by just six per cent of the province’s nurses, five per cent of the province’s physiotherapists and three per cent of its occupational therapists.
One of Northern Health’s strategies is to work more closely with newly-hired graduated nurses, emphasizing workplace safety, health and wellness.