Change coming for registered psychiatric nurses who can't work in N.L., says health minister
CBC
Change may be coming for a registered psychiatric nurse from Mount Pearl who can't work in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Right now registered psychiatric nurses working in other provinces can't be hired in Newfoundland in Labrador because their credentials aren't recognized.
The College of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador is the regulatory body for all registered nurses and nurse practitioners in the province but it doesn't have the authority to regulate registered psychiatric nurses.
That's a problem for 25-year-old Jasmine Sheppard.
She studied at the Brandon University campus in Winnipeg for four years to become a registered psychiatric nurse and graduated in May with a bachelor of science in psychiatric nursing. Sheppard is working as a registered psychiatric nurse in Winnipeg but wants to return to Newfoundland.
"I mean, it's home," Sheppard told CBC News.
"I can go to places like Ireland and New Zealand and Dubai and work. So it's disheartening to know that all these other places are open for me to go but I can't go home."
Newfoundland and Labrador has struggled with a nursing shortage for years. There are hundreds of vacancies to be filled. The province is also struggling to keep up with a great need for mental health and addictions services — the very services registered psychiatric nurses have been providing in Western Canada for decades.
Newfoundland and Labrador has been working to recruit nurses from the U.K, Ireland and India. Sheppard supports that, she said, but she also believes the province should turn to registered psychiatric nurses for help too.
"I think that Newfoundland obviously needs all the nurses that it can get," she said. "It's no secret that there has been a shortage forever."
Sheppard wants to return to Newfoundland to work at the new mental health and addictions facility being built next to the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's.
Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister Tom Osborne has good news for Sheppard.
"Well, I'd like to see her back home. So my message to her is start getting ready because it is going to happen," he said.
Osborne said he'll be announcing a pilot project, as early as September, that will give Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services the ability to hire registered psychiatric nurses.
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