Nursing needs noted in Nunavut
Staffing numbers questioned in community health centres
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, November 7, 2016
KITIKMEOT
Kitikmeot communities are questioning whether they have enough nurses. Perceived staffing shortages in health centres in Gjoa Haven and Kugaaruk were highlighted at recent meetings of the legislative assembly.
Nurse Sarah MacRury, right, injects Nunavut's former chief medical officer of health Dr. Maureen Baikie with the flu vaccine. Kitikmeot communities are questioning how staffing numbers are determined for community health centres. - NNSL file photo |
"When the health centre is short-staffed, it causes delays in the nurses being able to see patients, who sometimes have to wait over a week for an appointment," Gjoa Haven MLA Tony Akoak said in the legislature Oct. 27.
"Some people are diagnosed correctly, but it seems the majority are informed that they are not sick and that they are fine," Netsilik MLA Emiliano Qirngnuq said, expressing concerns from Kugaaruk.
"The person may have cancer and it can spread very quickly throughout one's body."
But according to the government, the communities have the nurses they need.
"Kugaaruk is actually over-staffed by one as of Nov. 1, and Gjoa Haven is covered with agency casuals," said Lisa Richter, director of human resources for the Department of Health. "We expect that in the new year we will have Gjoa Haven staffed more permanently."
Gjoa Haven's five-nurse station currently has four staff, one supervisor or nurse-in-charge and three nurses as of Oct. 27, according to Health Minister George Hickes.
"My office has not been made aware of any anticipated shortages," he said.
Hickes said a new project launched in September focusing on the model of care in the territory, which includes how to address early diagnosis of serious illness in remote communities.
The Nursing Recruitment and Retention Strategy initiated in 2009 is also being "revamped" into an overall health professional recruitment and retention strategy, he said.
"It's often been said that it's better to be a casual nurse than an indeterminate
nurse, and we take those comments very seriously."
This issue matched a concern raised by Tununiq MLA Joe Enook on Nov. 1.
He said sometimes temporary nurses become attached to a community and want to apply for permanent positions, but their applications go unacknowledged.
Hickes lamented this.
Richter pointed out that recruitment has been centralized so that these applications don't get lost.
She said while permanent positions are desirable for quality care in the community, casual nurses are very helpful to supplement rest hours for the regular nurses. She said fresh eyes and a variety of incoming expertise and skill sets also helps in remote areas.
As for recruiting, she said focus is on the right fit.
The department wants nurses who are clinically adaptable and culturally aware, with two years of experience - preferably in emergency and obstetrics - as well as an ability to work independently of a larger centre, with tools like tele-health.
"Based on Canadian Nurses Association estimates, 70 per cent of services provided by a family physician can be provided by a nurse practitioner," Hickes told legislators on Oct. 28.
"During the course of a year, as many as 570 physician appointments, an equivalent to 19 physician days, were diverted in Pond Inlet by the nurse practitioner."
Rankin Inlet, Pond Inlet, Clyde River and Pangnirtung have nurse practitioners, and positions have been approved for Cape Dorset, Igloolik, Baker Lake, Naujaat, Arviat, and Gjoa Haven.
Hickes acknowledged the department faces a number of staffing problems at a community level.
"We continue to face very complex challenges, fiscal constraints, burden of chronic disease, just the geographic realities of Nunavut," he said.
