(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

day one society

Day One Society offering $20k bonus to nurses

Jan 4, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS– The Day One Society youth detox wing opened its doors back in June, with a date of opening reliant on hiring staff. Six months later, the facility is now looking at February to start taking patients, as its still not fully staffed. To help attract staff, the organization is offering a $20,000 bonus to nurses who sign a two-year contract.

“We’ve been looking for nurses and other staff as well. I think about detox workers, cooks, and janitorial staff, going on for the better part of a year, if not longer,” said Sian Lewis, executive director of Day One Society.

“And specific to nurses, it’s been a very slow process in hiring them.”

Day One Society’s situation isn’t unique. Entities throughout the province are in need of nurses.

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“We have, as reported by Stats Canada, almost 6000 nursing vacancies in this province,” said BC Nurse’s Union (BCNU) President, Adriane Gear.

“And those vacancies do not include temporary vacancies, such as maternity leaves or nurses that are often short-term or long-term illnesses leave.”

Many health authorities have been looking for ways to bring nurses to their region, some even offering large signing bonuses.

To entice nurses to the Kamloops facility, Day One Society is offering a one-time $20,000 bonus to nurses who sign a two-year contract.

“There was quite an immediate response. We have quite a few casual nurses who really enjoy the flexibility of their schedule, and a couple of those nurses decided to step up to a permanent full-time position when they saw their signing bonus,” said Lewis.

“We’ve also received more applications and more interests, including people from across the country, not just in B.C..”

But the BC Nurse’s Union believes signing bonuses don’t address the root of the problem.

“I don’t know that money itself is the solution,” Gear explained.

“I think that it’s really about addressing the conditions of work and why people are leaving. We don’t have a problem necessarily recruiting nurses, we have a problem retaining nurses.”

Day One Society is looking to hire eight full-time nurses before it can start operations.

“The future looks like bringing in a whole bunch of new staff, and that includes the full spectrum of hiring processes, so reference checks, so on and so forth, full orientations, welcoming them on to the team, getting them up and running,” said Lewis.

“And hopefully having this unit open by mid-February.”