Nursing grads say pandemic experience pushing them out of Quebec hospitals

Nursing students and recent graduates from Quebec nursing programssay working conditions in thepublic health-care system are drivingthem to the private sector, further exacerbatinga shortage of nurses in provincial hospitals.

Audrey-Ann Bissonnette-Clermont, 27,graduated with a nursing degree a year ago. She started out in a Montreal emergency room butdecided to shift careers and take a job intelemedicine.

"I got into the profession because I like people, I like to work with people,'' she said."It's been hard to leave behind the face-to-face contact, but it's not difficult for my mental health.''

Bissonnette-Clermont says, unlike manynurses working in Quebec hospitals, she wasn't required to worka significant amount ofovertime during thepandemic. Butshe says the past year was still draining.

Bissonnette-Clermont is the president of a student nursing group -- theAssociation tudiante en sciences infirmires du Qubec. She says duringthe health crisisinternships were cancelled,trainees were denied time off to study and aspiring nurses were put right to work.

"We were required to work full-time, we were asked to work mandatory overtime,'' she said.

New nurses already burned out

Theexperience is pushing students out of Quebec's public health-care system and towardprivate sector health-care providers. Some privateplacement agencies send nurses to the public system but offer betterpay andflexiblehours.

"What we see a lot is that new nurses are burned out, they stop working after five, six months,'' said Bissonnette-Clermont.

"I don't think it's normal to be burned out after a few months at your first job," she said. "That should set off alarm bells, a red flag, for managers, for the government.''

Beatrice Landry-Belleau, who finished a bachelor's degree in nursing in May 2021, saysherpandemic experiencereinforced her decision to work in front-line health care -- but not in a hospital setting.

Landry-Belleau saysshe loves nursing butwants to balanceher work and personal life. Not being allowedto refuse overtime in a hospital setting worriesher.

"It'svery difficult to understand how you can go to work and not know when you can go back home,'' she said, adding she'd be happy to work in a neighbourhood, youth or refugee clinic or nurse-run cooperative.

Symptom of a bigger issue

Natalie Stake-Doucet, the president of the Quebec Nurses' Association, says whatnew nurses dealt with during the pandemic isa symptom of a larger problem: the way the profession is treated in the province.

"It's demoralizing for nursing students to go into [internships]and clinical rotations where they see forced overtime, violence, unbearable workloads and things like that,'' Stake-Doucet said.

"We've been called heroes...but that is not at all reflected in the way we're treated at work," she said.

Stake-Doucet saysforced overtime and cancelled vacations are also drivingnurses away.

"We're not nuns anymore," she said, "when you become a nurse you're not planning on living at the hospital, you still want a family, friends, a normal life and a job.''

Stake-Doucet said the problem in Quebec isn't a shortage;the problem isnurses don't want to work in the public system.

"There are actually enough nurses,'' she said. "We just are doing nothing to attract and retain them into the public health-care system.''

Stake-Doucet says the government is taking a coercive approach, limitingwhen placement agencies can provide nurses to the public sector.

She fears that strategy may push people out of the profession entirely. People hired away from regional health authorities aren't allowedto be placed by agencieson contracts with their former employers.

Rbecca Gunard-Chouinard, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Christian Dub, saysthe government has tried to limit the "exodus'' to the private sector.

"Our government reiterates its commitment to providing attractive working conditions for health-care workers in the public sector," she said.

Gunard-Chouinardsays the government is working to keep nurses in the public system all across the province and continuing to reduce its use of placement agencies.

She saysrecent agreements in principle with nurse's unions will improve working conditions by reducing overtime,boosting staff and increasing salaries.