This week BC’s nurses are voting on our proposed new contract. It is a critical vote as our healthcare system struggles in the aftermath (and ongoing impacts) of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are losing nurses at an alarming rate - with nurses at the end of their career retiring early or switching positions, others leaving the profession entirely to support their families and pay off debt, to younger nurses turning to travel nursing in order to survive in their careers longer term, build financial stability, and a life in an increasingly unaffordable world. I see a lot of my generation needing to turn to this latter option (as it pays far better, though there are other pros and cons) and I don’t blame them - people need to do what is best for them.
Travel (or agency) nurses fill an absolutely essential role in healthcare at present - we would not be able to function without them (at least where I work, we barely do as is.) That said, the solution to our current staffing crisis is not just hiring travel nurses, but retaining the experience of longtime staff.
A nurse is not just a body and set of skills, easily replaceable. Experience on a given unit - particularly specialty areas (or sub-specialty areas that aren’t formal specialty areas…) takes time to build. That experience is essential to the functioning of various areas of healthcare which is why retainment is critical, not just hiring.
Currently, we are bleeding out our experienced staff from multiple areas that depend on that asset. The more that we lose, the more strain is put on those remaining (to take on leadership duties without the same pay, educate new staff and students, and help to run the unit in ways they should never have to while trying to provide care to multiple, increasingly complex patients.)
To recover from this crisis, we need multiple strategies - travel nurses are a vital part of that, but so is the retainment of experience we cannot function without, because it’s not replaceable in and endless assembly line of bodies to fill roles. It is built over time and it’s value is priceless.
We need strategies that support student nurses to not have to start their career in debt, new nurses who will build experience and bring new ideas to their workplaces, middle-career nurses who carry experience forward and take on leadership in their workplaces, and longtime nurses who have irreplaceable experience, mentoring abilities, and provide support their colleagues rely on.
- S.
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