by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 04/98) - Time is ripe for a strong Northern recruitment drive for nurses, according to an upbeat NWT Registered Nurses Association president Nell Vrolyk.

But Health Minister Kelvin Ng and deputy minister Dave Ramsden both failed to appear at the association's biennial conference, leaving delegates disappointed at the lost opportunity.

"I'm disappointed not to see the minister of health or the deputy minister of health at all," Rankin Inlet midwife told Joan Irwin, Ng's executive assistant.

And though Yellowknife's Iris Kogiak was pleased there was at least some representation from the ministry, she said she did not believe the ministry was really listening.

Irwin said Ng was travelling to meetings in Vancouver while Ramsden was at meetings in Halifax.

She acknowledged about 25 per cent of Northern nursing positions are vacant.

"The minister is concerned that the nursing situation is at its worst since 1988. He knows that we can't expect an instant quick fix to the problem but the minister realizes that (the solution is) working together."

Irwin hinted that the ministry may consider hiking nurse salaries to keep nurses North, using money currently paid to southern nurses who make six-week sojourns up North before retreating back South to spend their money.

"I'd like to get into the GNWT books to find out how much is spent on the six-week rent-a-nurses," Vrolyk said.

Despite starting salaries in the $47,000 range for new nurses with degrees and about $45,000 for those with diplomas, Vrolyk said pay packages are not competitive with southern ones.

Further, Vrolyk blamed high rents, the removal of vacation travel assistance and high workloads for discouraging qualified southern nurses.

Vrolyk said other nurses leave because they do not expect the isolation or they are inexperienced and unaware of what Northern work entails.

"You take what you can get," Vrolyk said, still optimistic about future recruiting.

Meanwhile, some discussion centred on recruiting strategies, such as going after men.

"The percentage of men has risen among NWT nurses from one per cent to four per cent," said nurse Susan Hicks in a presentation on National Issues.

Hicks said she has talked to some men who say they have been actively discouraged from pursuing nursing because "it's women's work."

"We need to recruit and we haven't focused on men before," Hicks said. "We need to encourage and recruit so the citizens of this country will get the care they deserve and need."

The only man at the conference, Kimmirut's Rob Nevin, said he agrees with efforts to recruit men, calling them an "untapped resource."