Nurse practitioners struggling to find employment in B.C., despite high demand

“In some instances, while they’re in training, they are being cautioned to retain their jobs as registered nurses before graduation in case they’re not able to be employed in a nurse practitioner role upon graduation, and that is at the same time that we are seeing seats for nurse practitioners and post-secondary institutions in some instances doubling,” she said.

“So there are more people, more registered nurses going into those programmes and potentially graduating with fewer jobs on the other side.”

Wignall said that nurse practitioners are desperately needed in B.C.

“We know that British Columbians, in large numbers, cannot access care and nurse practitioners, in addition to working in acute and specialty services, they are uniquely trained to provide primary care services,” she said.

“So while at the same time, we’re hearing the Ministry of Health and the government of British Columbia going out and saying more family doctors for British Columbian, more primary care for British Colombians, we are not seeing that equal opportunity for nurse practitioners who are specially trained to provide primary care to be employed in those areas. And it’s not a workforce issue in the sense that there isn’t a need for those jobs. There’s simply not structure for those NPs to be employed.”

Wignall said that in B.C., nurse practitioners can be employed through a primary care contract, or they can be employed by a health authority.

She said that across the province, they are seeing those bodies make decisions to fund physician roles, instead of nurse practitioner roles.

“Now that’s contrary to the primary care strategy of the province, it’s contrary to the ministry’s direction around primary care, but at the end of the day, the dollars sit where the dollars sit and nurse practitioners are not at that table,” Wignall added.

She said that ultimately it is the Ministry of Health’s responsibility to oversee how money is allocated and where those decisions are made, and while the ministry says they want nurse practitioners on the ground in B.C., the reality looks different.

“So, for example, I recently heard from a nurse practitioner who graduated a few months ago,” Wignall said.

“She has submitted over six applications for six different NP positions, all of which are stalled in the review process. So there are processing issues in the ministry. There are direction challenges there as well. So it’s a real hodgepodge of issues at that point.”

On March 17, the B.C. government says it recruited hundreds of U.S. health-care workers to the province, including 42 nurse practitioners.

Wignall said they are not seeing the same opportunities for B.C.-trained nurse practitioners.

“We need every single pair of hands that we can get in nursing and with nurse practitioners here in B.C. and so we’ve seen this enormous response to the U.S. recruitment,” she said.

“We’ve seen over 1,000 nurses and nurse practitioners registered from the U.S. to come to British Columbia and there’s no question we need them too. However, when the ministry comes out strong and says, ‘Hooray, we’ve recruited NPs!’ and NPs here at home who are Canadian, who are trained here, who live in the communities where care is needed, when they can’t get jobs, it feels like a smack in the face. It feels heartbreaking.”

Anna Kindy, B.C. health critic said that with so many British Columbians without a primary care provider, it is astounding that nurse practitioners are not being hired.

“The government seems to be moving very slowly and what happens is, if you don’t retain the people you have, they can leave the province, so we need to move quickly to retain the people we have,” she said.

Kindy said that B.C. cannot afford to lose front-line health-care workers and the government needs to do more than just review what the procedures are.

“When you don’t have a primary care provider, you get sicker,” she added. “And also you end up in an emergency department and we know already that our emergency department wait times are over the top, because people often can’t access primary care and they end up going to emergency departments sicker than they would have been.”

Wignall said that there are currently 1,500 nurse practitioners registered in B.C. and by 2030, there will be 3,700.

“This is one of the fastest growing segments of nursing practice in the country.”

Global News reached out to the B.C. Ministry of Health, but did not hear back in time for publication.

–with files from Ben O’Hara Byrne

by Amy Judd/Global News

Nurse practitioners struggling to find employment in B.C., despite high demand

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