Horizon Health Seeks Hundreds Of RNs

Horizon Health says it has more than 450 full-time and part-time registered nurse vacancies to fill across the province.

Those figures were presented during the health authority’s quarterly board meeting on Friday.

Horizon has set a target of hiring 382 new RNs during the 2021-22 fiscal year, up from 276 the year before.

But Geri Geldart, vice-president of clinical, said there are not enough seats at local universities to meet the need.

Geldart said there are “huge waiting lists” of highly qualified candidates who are unable to get into the programs.

“So either they don’t become nurses, they choose other careers, or they leave the province to follow that career and it’s highly unlikely after they’ve left that they come back,” said Geldart.

“Our position is there is a New Brunswick population who want to be nurses and we’re not opening the doors in a university for them to be able to take that back, and as a result, we’re losing population and we’re not meeting our health care requirements.”

New Brunswick offers nursing programs at two post-secondary institutions: the University of New Brunswick and Université de Moncton.

Figures from Horizon Health show 144 graduate nurses were hired in 2020-21, including 129 from within the province.

The health authority has interviewed more than 100 graduate nurses this year and has begun making offers.

CEO Karen McGrath said the universities are willing to provide the seats, but she has been told it comes down to a lack of provincial funding.

“It is an issue that there has been debate between this government and the universities about how funds have been used in the past and an unwillingness to fund them into the future,” said McGrath.

The province is investing $18 million over 10 years to support 105 seats in the LPN-to-RN bridging programs at the two schools.

But Geldart said that is “not anywhere near” the number they will need to address the health care requirements.

Horizon officials also provided an update on recruitment efforts for nurse practitioners and family physicians.

The health authority currently has 83 nurse practitioners across the province. Nine were hired in 2020-21 and there are currently 17 vacancies.

Officials said seven nurse practitioners will be graduating from UNB in August and the health authority will begin making conditional offers to them as early as next week.

On the family physician front, the health authority has seen 40 departures since July 2019 but has also had 78 confirmed recruitments during that time.

Horizon says 17 of those physicians are expected to start their practice this summer.