The goal of the new program, which the province launched with its largest nursing union, is to cut out for-profit middlemen by inviting unionized staff nurses to work as temporary fill-ins in understaffed rural health facilities
He spent two weeks last year providing primary care at a hospital in St. Anthony, a coastal town of 2,500 near the tip of Newfoundland’s northern peninsula. Mr. Aylward, a nurse practitioner, made the 10-hour drive from his home in Bonavista, N.L., to shore up health care staffing in a community that, like many in rural Canada, has bled permanent nurses since the pandemic.
“Anecdotally, everyone says we’ve saved money and that it’s working,” said Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses’ Union of Newfoundland and Labrador, the province’s partner on the program. CHL continues to supply nurses to other parts of Newfoundland for $172.22 an hour. Several nurses who worked for CHL in Newfoundland told The Globe they were paid between $85 and $100 an hour.
The amount of money the program has saved, and its impact on the use of private agency nurses, is yet to be determined. Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is conducting a financial evaluation and a survey of participating nurses, said Tina Coffey, a spokesperson for the province’s Department of Health and Community Services. But the government and union have already agreed to extend the pilot to January, 2025.
“It’s a win-win, from my perspective, in terms of having a predictable work force that you can deploy to sites that are experiencing staffing issues,” Ms. Smith said.
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