N.L. nurses union unhappy with health authority's plan to standardize travel nurse contracts

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is seeking to standardize the contract it offers to private nursing agencies, but the union that represents nurses in the province says it's a step in the wrong direction.

N.L. Health Services issued a request for proposals on Wednesday, which it said in a news release is part of a commitment to "implement cost-effective arrangements to address human resources challenges."

Debbie Molloy, the health authority's vice president of human resources, says each of the former four regional authorities had independent contracts with private nursing agencies prior to amalgamating — each with different rates and terms.

"By standardizing the rates, we've been able to ensure that we get best value in terms of the amount that we're paying. And we're also ensuring that we have the same terms and conditions," Molloy said Tuesday.

All contracts will be awarded for two years to an approved list of agencies, Molloy said. Agency nurses will only be used when other employment sources — like nurses already hired in the public system — have been exhausted.

"That is always the very first thing that we try and do. And agency is only ever used if we've exhausted all of our efforts to hire people directly with us," she said.

Molloy said this request for proposals mainly applies to nurses, but said the wording was left open in case agencies are required for other positions in the future.

But Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses' Union of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the announcement left her upset and taken aback.

She said she learned about the proposal through the media on Wednesday morning.

"That's very problematic, because I do know that the new CEO, Karen Stone, has committed that we would be in constant communication, and especially around announcements such as this," Coffey said.

"We think that this is the wrong direction. It's the exact opposite of the commitment that N.L. Health Services announced a few months back with their plan to ween off of agency nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador. You know, we thought that they'd be weening them off, not signing a two-year contract for more agency nurses."

According to documents obtained by an access-to-information request filed by CBC News in July, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services spent $91 million on travel nursing in 2023.

In May, Molloy and then N.L. Health Services CEO David Diamond announced plans to gradually reduce the use of agency nurses by April 2026 — but Diamond noted the health authority expects to spend $70 million this year on agency nurses.

Coffey said the money could have better uses, like ensuring better working conditions and helping to eliminate violence nurses face on the job.