Nova Scotia gently encourages health care workers to settle down locally
The province is changing the rules for hiring nurses.
Premier Nova Scotia Tim Houston has announced that nurses employed by publicly funded Nova Scotia Health, IWK Health or any other provincially funded health care provider can only be hired for a maximum of 180 days.
This change applies to so-called travel nurses, that is, licensed health care workers who do not have a permanent place of employment. They register with recruitment agencies and are temporarily placed there to meet urgent staffing shortages in the field. Such professionals can change jobs about four times a year — and now Nova Scotia intends to fix that.
"Travel nurses have been a critical part of maintaining our healthcare system while we work to train and hire more nurses. But the associated costs are much higher and there is always the risk of them leaving, creating instability in the system,” said Premier Houston. “There will always be nurses who want to travel, but the change we are making today will encourage more to take on permanent positions where they are needed most. I’m calling on premiers across the country to consider doing the same."
The change will take effect Dec. 15 and will affect the province's traveling nurses, of which there are currently about 350 in total.
In addition to the cap, the law introduces a restriction on returning to a place of employment that has already been abandoned. Employees must now wait one year before they can be rehired as traveling nurses in these facilities. In doing so, they can take a permanent job in Nova Scotia or continue working as a traveling nurse in another province.
Graduate nurses in Nova Scotia may not work as traveling nurses in the province for one year after graduation.
