Iqaluit (July 02/01) - Jennifer Pearce resigned from Baffin Regional Hospital along with 11 nurses three years ago -- the largest nursing exodus during her two years at BRH. Today, Pearce holds the hospital's top nursing position.

What happened?

The Newfoundland-born nurse and her husband couldn't stay away. In fact, Pearce, now the nursing manager, never wanted to leave. The couple and their two young children returned to Iqaluit last year.

Pearce's initial departure offers a glimpse at what prevents many nurses -- and other medical staff -- from calling Iqaluit home. There's the high cost of living, the lack of daycare, housing shortfalls and heavily taxed signing bonus.

Here's how things stand today. The hospital employs 18 full-time nurses. The hospital's 25 beds require 20 full-time nurses: a patient-to-nurse ratio of approximately 5:1.

The two-nurse shortfall is manageable for now, said Trevor Pollitt, director of hospital services. "It's not a critical situation. Of course we'd like to have more nurses and we are actively recruiting," Pollitt said.

A nurse busy with a patient on the adult ward thought otherwise. "We need more nurses," she said under her breath.

The shortfall comes with its own sense of irony, though. The hospital is down to five beds after losing two patient rooms to a birthing room and teleconference room last year. If for some reason 10 nurses were hired tomorrow, there would be more nurses than beds.

"We don't have the physical space for more staff," Pearce said.

Bed closures have ebbed and flowed over the years. Three years ago, the hospital operated at full capacity, with 34 beds. Just last year the number dropped to 12 beds. The temporary closures resulted from the nursing shortage, Pearce said.

Despite the occasional move of children to the adult ward when the six-bed paediatric unit is full, however, Pearce said no one is being turned away.

Health Minister Ed Picco said three to four years will pass before a new hospital, still in the planning stages, is built. By the time it's complete, Nunavut Arctic College's first graduating class of nurses will be looking for work.

Pearce would like to see a 75-bed hospital staffed with 60 nurses. Meanwhile, resignations remain an on-going concern at the Baffin hospital, Pollitt and Pearce said.

"If there are two more resignations (without filling the positions) we'll have to close beds. That would be our last option," Pearce said.

It's much the same story in Inuvik, where the regional health board is so desperate for nurses it is looking overseas for replacements, specifically the Philippines.

"It is said to be a global problem and we can't help everyone but we should try to help ourselves," board chair Nellie Cournoyea said at a health conference last week.

But the NWT and Nunavut aren't the only jurisdictions poaching foreign nationals. The U.S., for example, can make extremely lucrative offers.

"How do you compete with a $10,000 signing bonus?" Pearce asked. "You can't."

Although that doesn't stop them from trying. According to Pollitt, the Baffin regional health board is running recruitment campaigns around the world, trying to lure nurses from as far as Australia to the Baffin.

Operating in the North's favour is the lure of working in a exotic environment and on a variety of wards. "A reference from here goes a long way," Pearce said. "Sometimes you feel you're overworked and understaffed. However, if you think of what's in the south and we're OK."