| 'It's
very much a challenge," said Pat Fredrickson, president of the
Canadian Practical Nurses Association, during a break in the
meetings. "It hasn't been a profession that could attract
younger people to come into it." One of the reasons it's tough
to attract people is the big difference in pay of practical nurses
and registered nurses.
In
Alberta, where Fredrickson works, they earn about half of what an RN
makes. A registered nurse in Alberta with a diploma and nine years
of experience is paid $32.42 an hour, or more than $64,000.
Only
in Quebec, where an LPN program has been combined with the final two
years of high school, have they been able to buck a trend which has
seen the bulk of the workforce across the country fall into the
45-54 age category.
Even
Alberta, with the overall youngest workforce in the country, hasn't
altered the pattern, noted Dr. Richard Loreto, president of RAL
Consulting Ltd and keynote speaker at the conference.
He
said nursing in general has to attract groups that are
under-represented now - notably men and aboriginals - if it wants to
keep pace with needs.
There
is a continuing role for the LPN, who has less training than an RN
and a reduced level of responsibility, he said.
"I
think there has to be a co-ordinated flexible arrangement for
different levels of nursing."
He
said projections in the United States, which has done more work on
the issue, suggest there is a need for at least one million new
nurses in the next 10 years and more than 300,000 LPNs.
A
recent report on the nursing crisis in Canada pointed to a high rate
of burnout because of worker shortages.
Fredrickson
said LPNs have been generally overlooked in the past, but that is
changing.
"In
the future no employer can afford to ignore the knowledge and skills
of any employee and that's literally what happened with practical
nurses across the country.
"We
will need everybody to do the most that they can do to be a part of
the solution."
She
said they recognize the difference in the role of the more highly
educated registered nurse, who now is likely to be a graduate of a
four-year university degree program.
"Management,
leadership education, those are traditionally not LPN roles, those
are registered nurse roles. But bedside nursing is a shared
competency."
As
for attracting young people to the profession, the answer is to
offer decent pay and a rewarding job, she said.
"If the work is rewarding and the compensation is
adequate, it will attract people."
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