NIPIGON — Although the healthcare sector has been plagued by several staffing shortages over the years, the shortage of nursing in Nipigon District Memorial Hospital is becoming dire.
"We're in desperate need," said Cynthia Wotherspoon, the hospital's nurse manager.
Wotherspoon said the rural hospital requires at least six or seven full-time nurses. The shortage of nurses has meant that everyone had to fill in wherever needed the most.
"I have had to work on the floor, our [chief nursing executive] has had to work on the floor. Currently, I'm actually running the telehealth unit because we don't actually don't have a nurse to run that unit," said Wotherspoon.
To fill the gap in full-time staff, hospital CEO Cathy Eady said the hospital has had to hire temporary nurses through private agencies which cost the hospital two to four times more than agency nurses, which does not include the added expenses of travel and accommodations the hospital will front as part of attracting the private agency nurses to work in Nipigon.
At the moment, the hospital rents two homes for agency nurses to live in while working in the community.
"For some agencies, the fee that we pay them part of it is their accommodation, so those are the individuals we try and get to stay in the home so it’s not a net new cost for the hospital," Eady said. "But at the end of the day, it’s costing us money.”
Eady said that the hospital’s general budget pays to accommodate agency nurses, which they are “way over.”
“We are in a significant deficit and these are those kinds of reasons why,” said Eady.
Eady said hospitals have to sign accountability agreements. One of which is a service accountability agreement. Much like every governing body, hospitals have to operate with a balanced budget. If their budget does not balance within a given year, hospitals have to find ways to balance their budget for the next year.
“Normally we won’t move forward with this or don’t do that, but some hospitals are looking at cutting service because they are out the funds to do it,” said Eady.
Eady said the cost of supplies and hiring agency nurses to temporarily work in the hospital contributes to their deficit.
“I don’t know what to do other than try and recruit locally, which is on everybody’s mind, so we are competing against each other for all these individuals graduating,” said Eady.
However, starting in September, there is potential relief to hiring more local staff.
Partnering with Confederation College, the hospital will offer on-site training in the registered practical nursing education program if they fill the required number of spots for the course.
Eady said they have two people registered out of six positions available.
If those positions aren’t filled in time, Eady said those students will be placed in other hospitals along the north shore.
“We are just really hoping we get enough here because that’s your workforce. We need personal support workers and register practical nurses. If they train here, then more likely they will stay here,” said Eady.
“If you are interested in being a [personal support worker] there’s spots here for you or if you are interested in being a registered practical nurse, you don’t have to leave Nipigon anymore. It used to be you moved your whole family into Thunder Bay at a great cost and a lot of change. Now you can have that education here in Nipigon.”
