The provincial government pays private contract nurses at least twice the hourly wage of public sector nurses. Higher pay often comes with more scheduling flexibility, which some nurses say is luring many early-career executives away from the public sector — even as health workers struggle with recruitment and retention. Travel nurses, sometimes known as “agency” or “local” staff, are healthcare workers employed by private companies who provide additional nursing staff where needed. Many companies will fly nurses around the country on short-term or long-term contracts, often working in public sector hospitals and long-term care homes. Nurses must be registered and licensed to work in the province where they are posted, including Nova Scotia. But in some provinces where travel nurses are employed, unionized nurses have raised concerns about the practice.
COVID-19 has added to staff shortages
Beginning in late 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nova Scotia Department of Aging and Long-Term Care turned to travel nurses to supplement staff in long-term care homes across the province. “We’ve had a lot of staff shortages historically in this area, and Omicron has made that much more difficult,” said Barbara Adams, the minister for the elderly and long-term care, referring to the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19. . The department allocated $3.1 million in December 2021 for travel nurses. After the Omicron wave began, the department had to raise the amount by $18.4 million, which Adams said is to be fully spent within this fiscal year. Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Barbara Adams says Nova Scotia has brought in “travel nurses where they are needed across the province so we can keep our nursing home beds open.” (CBC) “We had a lot of beds closed in the sector and that was creating problems in the acute care sector,” the minister said in a recent interview with CBC News. According to a memo obtained by CBC News, as of March 11, 2022, there were 247 long-term care beds closed due to staffing issues. This was around the time when a growing number of healthcare workers were sick due to COVID-19. At least 296 patients were waiting in hospital for a nursing home bed. The Department of Aging and Long-Term Care reported that since November 15, 36 long-term care beds have been closed due to understaffing. By the end of September, there were 284 people waiting in hospital for a long-term care placement. “What we had to do was bring in travel nurses wherever they were needed across the province so we could keep our nursing home beds open,” Adams said. The Department of Aging and Long-Term Care said that as of Nov. 15, 36 long-term care beds have closed in Nova Scotia due to staffing issues. By the end of September, there were 284 people waiting in hospital for a long-term care placement. (Shutterstock) The move caught the attention of the Nova Scotia Nurses Association. “Traveling nurses have been around for a number of years, but they are underutilized, primarily in acute care and primarily in our rural facilities,” union president Janet Hazelton said. In the past two years, she said she has seen an increased reliance on travel nurses. Hazelton said she didn’t know of them regularly working in long-term care. “This is a new thing for us,” he said. “It’s certainly a concern for all nursing unions across the country.”
$134 against hourly wages of $40
The province’s long-term care travel nurse fund is administered by Halifax Northwood Care Home, the largest not-for-profit care home in Nova Scotia. She is responsible for recruiting and coordinating travel nurses through Toronto-based medical staffing agency Magnus. According to letters released to CBC News under access to information legislation, the province has approved funding until the end of March 2022 for up to 31 licensed practical nurses (LPNs), six registered nurses (RNs) and 60 personal support workers ( PSWs). ). They worked on at least 14 homes, including Yarmouth, Kentville, Bridgewater, Halifax, Antigonish, Berwick, Shelburne and various other locations. The province had closed 247 long-term care beds by March 11, 2022, due to staffing issues, according to information obtained by CBC News. This was around the time when an increasing number of healthcare workers were sick due to COVID-19. (Nicolas Steinbach/Radio-Canada) The hourly wage for LPNs was set at $124.80, for RNs between $134 and $138.60, and for PSWs at $96.80. Each travel nurse was also approved for up to $3,000 per month for lodging and up to $1,000 in travel expenses, such as vehicle rental, and received a Northwood-issue cell phone. The province also approved $280,000 for administrative costs. Overtime, incidentals or meals were not covered. It’s unclear from the letters whether the nurses received the full hourly rate set or if part of their pay went to their company. Travel nurses usually do not receive a pension and in some cases have no workplace benefits. The nurses’ union’s Hazelton said those rates can be $70 to $100 an hour more than what her members are paid, which is concerning. Nova Scotia Nurses Association president Janet Hazelton says travel nurses have been working in acute care for years, but she didn’t previously know them working regularly in long-term care. (David Laughlin/CBC) Unionized RNs at the top of the pay scale with at least 25 years of service in long-term care can earn about $40 an hour, while top LPNs earn less than $30 an hour. “A lot of our nurses don’t think that’s fair to be paid so much less than travel nurses. But that’s the reality when you hire a company to provide nurses for you,” she said. Adams, the seniors’ minister, acknowledged there is a pay gap, but said from her own personal experience as a physical therapist who worked in a long-term care nursing home during the pandemic, the biggest problem for regular staff morale is that there are too few people on the floor. “They know that the value of adequate staffing outweighs the fact that it happens to cost a little more than usual,” he said. “This is about staff safety and residents getting the care they need. And so everyone understands this is a necessary step.”
Travel nurses are a “Bandage Aid,” says the association
Adams said she could not provide exact numbers on the number of travel nurses working in long-term care, as the number fluctuates, but it increased over the summer to give regular staff their vacation and has remained roughly flat since then. Expect it to remain the same over the Christmas holiday period. The additional cost to taxpayers from hiring travel nurses is “not ideal,” he said, noting the province is taking steps to expand the number of positions in nursing schools to get more staff, but in the meantime he declined to put any kind of date. completion in the travel nurse program. “We will continue this program until we don’t need it anymore,” he said. Hazelton agreed that patient safety is important, but said it should be achieved through training and attracting more full-time nurses to the public sector. “We need to look at a longer, more sustainable solution than this,” he said. “Travel nurses are not the answer. They may be a Band-Aid, but they are not the answer. We need a better solution than this.” Hazelton said some nurses who have worked in the public system switch to travel nursing to achieve a better work-life balance. She said she believes the provincial government needs to speak directly with these nurses to find out why. “These are the young men and women who have the solutions and can tell us what it will take to stay and work and live in Nova Scotia part-time or full-time,” he said.
The system offers flexibility, an opportunity to save money
Julie McCutcheon is an RN who has worked as a travel nurse primarily in emergency rooms since 2010. She previously worked in the public sector, but said the cost of living as a single person was probably her “biggest motivator” to get into travel nursing . McCutcheon’s home community is Peterborough, Ont., a city that has seen some of the fastest rising home prices in Canada. “I didn’t want to stay at home with mum and dad anymore, I wanted my own place,” she said. She researched travel nursing and decided to pack her car and contract in another province. “I just had a desire to travel and a sense of adventure,” he said. McCutcheon has worked across Canada, including two conventions in Digby and one in Sydney, NS. He is now back in Ontario. Julie McCutcheon, originally from Peterborough, Ont., has worked as a travel nurse in provinces across Canada since 2010, including stints in Nova Scotia. (Submitted by Julie McCutcheon) McCutcheon said travel nursing has allowed her to choose her own schedule, take vacation time and participate in hobbies she loved but missed out on because of work, like figure skating. And the higher pay she receives as a travel nurse has allowed her to afford her own apartment and save money on the cost of a down payment on a house. McCutcheon said she would like to someday settle in her home country and get a full-time job, but she wants to be able to afford her own home. She facilitates a growing Facebook group for working and aspiring travel nurses, with about 8,000 members, and said housing is an important factor for many of them. “A lot of these girls are 23 to 35 years old and their public sector salary just allows them to live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “Many have said they choose travel…
