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Quebec's remote regions facing nursing crisis

By: Jane George
Nunatsiaq News, July 30, 1998

KUUJJUAQ - Many of Nunavik's growing communities grumble that their health clinics are understaffed, but this situation probably won't be resolved soon, as Nunavik copes with a critical shortage of nurses.

"I have no cv's, no candidates at all," says Hélène Levasseur of Nunavik's regional health board.

She said that it's become harder and harder over the past year to find nurses for Nunavik because of the Quebec government's changing policies.
Many nurses retired

Last summer the Quebec government offered all public employees, including health workers, the chance to take early retirement at age 55. This offer encouraged thousands of nurses to leave the work force.

Despite the many hospital closures and other cut-backs in Quebec's health network, these departures still freed up many nursing positions in the South.
As a result, many of Nunavik's 69 nurses, some of whom had been in the region for years, resigned to return South.

As nurses leave their jobs, hospitals and community clinics in the South no longer want to free up nurses for short-term work in Nunavik.

This reluctance is due to the fact that these health institutions also have difficulty filling nursing jobs, and want to keep their employees close to home.

In the past, nurses with permanent jobs in the South could be released from their positions to take what's called in French a conge-nordique - or "Northern break" - and work for a period of up to one year in Nunavik.
Levasseur said that she has also had to refuse some candidates who were seriously interested in coming to Nunavik because they were unable to communicate in English.

No extra money

Money is another major obstacle to recruitment, because Quebec nurses who work in Nunavik don't earn more than their counterparts in the South.
Nurses who work in Nunavik do receive four paid trips out every year, as well as 33 days of combined vacation and holidays, the same as they would earn in the South. "But why would I come to Nunavik for the same salary?," Levasseur said.

Levasseur wants the Quebec health department to offer nurses the same kind of incentives available to doctors who agree to work in remote regions, such as relocation bonuses, better housing and a 30 per cent salary premium.

She would also like to have a budget for recruitment and training.

The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services has joined ranks with other isolated regions to lobby the provincial health and social services department, the Quebec hospital association, and the CLSC's federation to free up nurses who want to work in the North.

"The problem is not just in the Nunavik, but in all the remote regions of Quebec," said Levasseur. "We've knocked on every door, but no one's helping us."