Health critic Paul Dinn says nurses are essential to a functioning healthcare system, and they need support to do their essential work.
This is Nurses Week and Dinn says government should have recognized their importance in a news release. Yesterday, Health Minister Tom Osborne said 200 new nursing graduates have agreed to stay in the province to work. Dinn says there’s no guarantee that those nurses will actually stay here and there are more than 750 vacancies. Dinn says according to the Registered Nurses Union, 90% of registered nurses and nurse practitioners have faced burnout due to working conditions. 85% of nurses believe ‘understaffing is creating unsafe conditions’ in our healthcare system.” He says nurses here are the lowest paid in Canada.