Quebec nurses who study part-time feel stung by workload increase

As the CAQ government promotes its new health-care plan, promising improved working conditions for nurses, some younger nurses who work and study part-time say their voices aren't being heard.

"I feel like we're being left behind in some way," Marie-Pier L'Ecuyer, a nurse who works part-time at an institution in the West-Central Montreal health agency, told CBC in an interview.

"It feels bad. I feel like I'm up against a brick wall," Garrett Johnson, another nurse who works for the same health agency, told CBC.

Johnson and L'Ecuyer both began their nursing careers after graduating last spring. Both opted to work part-time while continuing their studies.

And now both are being now forced by their new collective agreement to double the number of shifts they work, a requirement that has them considering leaving the public system.

CBC first reported on how the workload increase is affecting part-time nurses two weeks ago.  Since then some nurses who work and study part-time, including Johnson and L'Ecuyer, reached out to share how the change is affecting them.

The new collective agreement between the government and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) was signed last fall. The measure targeting part-time nurses has been gradually rolling out across the province since then.

Under the previous agreement, part-time nurses were required to work at least eight shifts over a 28-day period — two shifts a week. The new collective agreement increases that number to 14 shifts over a 28-day period, nearly doubling the workload.

The measure is mandatory for all part-time nurses in the public system, with a few exceptions. Nurses who are studying full-time are exempt, and can continue to work two shifts a week.

But nurses such as Johnson and L'Ecuyer, who study part-time, have to double their number of shifts.

For L'Ecuyer, the change took effect in January. After earning her bachelor's in nursing, she is now studying to get a master's degree in law. She wants to specialize in health law and policy. 

The new collective agreement meant she either had to add more work hours or add more school hours in order to keep her job.

L'Ecuyer decided to go from part-time studies to full-time, so she could keep working two days a week. The change has been intense.

"I'm not going to be able to maintain this type of schedule for the entirety of my master's," she said. She still has two years of classes left, and a thesis to write after that.