'We need to stop this': Some N.S. hospital units have 80% nurse vacancy rates

Vacancy rates for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners are as high as 80 per cent at some Nova Scotia hospitals. 

The province's nursing unions say those job vacancies mean the nurses who are left working in understaffed units are sometimes working 24-hour shifts, working six days a week, going months without a vacation day and handling double the usual number of patients. 

According to new numbers from Nova Scotia Health, 18 units at regional hospitals had a vacancy rate of 50 per cent or more as of Dec. 31. That means a handful of nurses are left to pick up the slack.

"It's really difficult to work short on a good day," said Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union. "When you work one nurse short it's very difficult. When you work five or six nurses short, it's impossible."

The highest vacancy rates are an 80 per cent LPN (licensed practical nurse) vacancy rate in the emergency department at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, and an 83 per cent nurse practitioner vacancy rate in the mental health and addictions unit at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital. 

The rates appear to be climbing quickly. Nova Scotia Health's emergency department vacancy rate numbers from the end of November show lower vacancy rates at six of the 10 regional hospitals.

At the Aberdeen Hospital and the Colchester East Hants Health Centre, vacancy rates for registered nurses in the emergency department grew by more than 10 per cent in a month. 

Hazelton said these numbers aren't a surprise to her. She said current working conditions in hospitals are driving nurses away.

She said many are going to part-time, switching to travel nursing, or leaving the profession altogether. 

She said when experienced nurses leave the profession, it impacts new nurses who require mentorship. This can add to the high rates of burnout in all stages of the career. 

Last week, Michelle Thompson, the province's health minister, told CBC's Information Morning Halifax: "At Nova Scotia Health, we could accept 1,500 nurses today."

Hugh Gillis, first vice-president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, said the number is concerning. The union represents nurses at the QEII Hospital in Halifax and some other facilities in the province.

"These vacancy rates clearly tell a story, and that story is we're in a health-care crisis in this province, our emergency rooms are in a health-care crisis, and when the Minister of Health says that they need 1,500 nurses, that's all you need to know."

But Hazelton said having more nurses isn't the answer if they don't continue to work.