Northern Health is providing an update on recruitment efforts following four years of chronic staffing shortages.
Speaking with CJDC-TV, Lisa Zanatta, VP of Clinical Operations, says the health authority successfully recruited 900 net new employees to northern B.C., with 450 of them being nurses.
An exact number of net nurse gains in the Peace Region couldn’t be provided, only that the figures are tracked.
The shortage has been attributed to three hospital diversions this month—two in Chetwynd and one in Dawson Creek. The situation reached a critical point in 2024, with Chetwynd experiencing 25 service interruptions and Dawson Creek facing double-digit disruptions. Last July, the Fort St. John ER saw five closures between the 12th and 18th.
“There are still unintended diversions, short notice set calls that come in from people who, for whatever reason, are unable to report to work. This may result in a closure, but they are far less frequent now than they were before,” explained Zanatta.
In 2021, former Health Minister Adrian Dix said he was open to an independent audit of Northern Health, contingent on a few things being done first. One of them was a change in hiring practices. The minister then backtracked on his stance on an audit before leaving the position following an NDP cabinet shuffle post-October’s provincial election.
Zanatta says recruitment and training remain ongoing. The $30,000 incentive program, retention bonuses, and training incentives are still in place.
“We are much more successful when we have local people with local roots, families. Their connection points in rural areas get the training because they’re more likely to stay in a rural area,” said Zanatta.
Zanatta adds that Northern Health plans to follow through with the policy set out by the B.C. Nurses Union to have nurse-to-patient ratios in place within the next few years. It will see one nurse for every four patients 24 hours a day in medical and surgical units.
“That will mean we need to recruit even more nurses because this is going to bring a large influx of health care workers into our system,” Zanatta noted.
However, it’s not a promise that the diversions will stop, but a step towards avoiding them.
“We can always get better at how we do things, and that is something that we’re looking at internally,” Zanatta said. She adds they’ve become more ‘sophisticated’ in reducing hospital closures, utilizing programs like GoHealth BC.
“The entire Northern Health family and team is working to ensure that we mitigate every closure,” said Zanatta, who is encouraging more locals to consider a career in healthcare.
While the news is promising, it comes at a time when nearly 150 nurses employed by Northern Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority are rallying in Vancouver. They are calling for improved working conditions, addressing staffing shortages, and safety issues.
Zanatta says she hears the concerns and there are currently measures in place to report workplace incidents, and a process for investigating unsafe events, as staff safety is part of their retention platform.
“The event is part of a two-day regional bargaining conference organized by BCNU in Vancouver, where nurses are laying out their bargaining priorities and identifying common challenges ahead of Nurses’ Bargaining Association contract negotiations set to begin this year,” said the BC Nurses Union in a press release.