Budget Backgrounder: Nursing Shortage Addressed

Four hundred full-time nursing positions will be added to the health care system, Finance Minister Don Downe announced today in the provincial budget, which allocated some $10 million to address the nursing shortage.

In addition, 70 new spaces in the nursing schools at Dalhousie and St. Francis Xavier universities will be created to train new nurses. Provincial funding for those spaces will be available this academic year.

The funding increase will allow hospitals to hire 200 new full-time nurses and convert as many as 200 casual positions to full time.

Health Minister Jim Smith said the new $600-million Health Investment Fund will address other issues of particular concern to nurses.

Money will be allocated for training nurses to participate in fields and opportunities that emerge as a result of the Health Investment Fund itself, in home care, nursing homes, and community-based programs.

"Just as the province embarked on a successful program to recruit and retain doctors, we will recruit and retain nurses," Dr. Smith said. The recruitment will be aimed at experienced Nova Scotian nurses who, for a variety of reasons, left the province to practise, as well as nurses still in the province but who have left the profession.

"Clearly, as we bring more balance to our health care system, a wider variety of special skills and knowledge will be needed in all parts of the system. Human resource planning will become more complex, yet significantly more important. Training for care providers will be a priority investment beginning this year."

All the key players will be at the table when strategies are developed to support health care providers. Those players include people who manage health care organizations, professional associations, educational institutions, union leaders, and most important, the front line care providers themselves.

A senior position -- nursing adviser -- has been created in the Department of Health. The nurse who fills the position will work to improve understanding between policy-makers and nurses, and cement an ongoing relationship that will benefit Nova Scotian nurses.