Health P.E.I. says over $200K to draw international nurses here is money well spent
Trips to Dubai, Singapore have led to more than 100 employment offers, province says
Health P.E.I. is offering a better picture of how much it is spending to recruit internationally trained nurses, and whether those missions have been paying off.
Recruiters with the agency travelled to Dubai twice in the past two years and once to Singapore in an effort to entice nurses based in those countries to come and work in Prince Edward Island.
The three trips cost P.E.I. taxpayers nearly $230,000 in total, but provincial recruiters said they've been paying dividends.
"I think that the proof of that is the fact that we have people who have letters of offer from Health P.E.I., so we're building that pipeline," said Maura McKinnon, the agency's interim human resources executive.
"We need to have individuals who are coming into our system on a regular basis and individuals who have the experience and expertise to be able to provide the service that's required."
The province said 101 nurses were offered employment as a result of the three missions.
Those internationally trained nurses will eventually have to go through a 14-week program that will certify them to work in Canada.
CBC News asked for a breakdown of the costs of the three recruitment missions, including how many Health P.E.I. staff attended and how much their travel and venues cost:
- Dubai, March 2023: Five attendees, $65,391 total expenses.
- Singapore, October 2023: Four attendees, $89,321 total expenses.
- Dubai, February 2024: Seven attendees, $74,257 total expenses.
The province recently announced an additional 200 permanent nursing positions. That's in addition to the nearly 300 vacancies for permanent nurses Health P.E.I. has been dealing with.
'A benefit for everybody'
Barbara Brookins, president of the P.E.I. Nurses' Union, said the internationally trained nurses will be an important part of keeping the Island's health-care system running.
"If we can bring in nurses ethically — so bringing them in from countries that have a surplus — then that's certainly a way of adding to our numbers," she said.
"We can't put enough nurses through nursing schools right now to… manage even the regular transition of people retiring on the other end."
The union is also speaking with the recruited nurses once they land on P.E.I. to ensure they know what they're entitled to, especially when it comes to compensation.
Brookins said many of the nurses don't realize they can get paid based on their years of experience, regardless of where they developed their skills.
"If we can bring in nurses that are already trained and just provide them with that transitional background for them to acclimate into the Canadian health system, then it's a benefit for everybody," she said.
The province plans to continue to look for badly needed health-care staff, both locally and internationally. Planning is already underway for another recruitment mission to Australia.
Health P.E.I. took over recruitment from the Department of Health and Wellness as of April 1. McKinnon said that transition should make it easier and faster to hire new staff.
"How we engage with individuals from the very start of the relationship sets the tone and the stage for how their experience will be with Health P.E.I.," she said.
"We want to make sure, as they go through the recruitment process, that it is as smooth and seamless and easy as possible for them."
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With files from Wayne Thibodeau