'We don't know who they are': Union concerned over P.E.I.'s handling of international nursing recruits

Stephen Brun · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 17, 2025 5:57 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

P.E.I. wellness officials are celebrating the results of caller overseas trips to enlistee caller nurses, but the national that's expected to beryllium representing them says the state isn't providing immoderate accusation astir who they are oregon wherever they're working.

"We can't get a clasp of them. We don't cognize who they are," said Barbara Brookins, president of the P.E.I. Nurses' Union, which represents unit successful the nationalist health-care system. 

"We request to cognize astatine what constituent they go our members, and past we besides privation to cognize what's happening to them successful the meantime….

"We don't privation these nurses to get retired there, and beryllium struggling successful an country wherever the supports are not successful place."

Officials with the province's Office of Immigration and Health P.E.I. conducted interviews with dozens of internationally educated nurses implicit the past mates of years, doubly successful Dubai and erstwhile successful Singapore. 

At the time, Health P.E.I. said it was grappling with a 20 per cent vacancy complaint for each types of unit positions and a shortage of full-time workers. 

The state said 28 occupation offers came retired of the recruitment travel to Singapore and a full of 73 from the 2 trips to Dubai successful 2023 and 2024. That's a full of 101 offers from the 3 trips. 

P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane said the question was wealth good spent, adding that the state plans to proceed with its planetary recruitment efforts. 

"Ultimately, we admit we request much nurses successful each parts of our health-care system, whether it beryllium nationalist oregon private," McLane said. 

"Now that we person the setup successful place… I deliberation we should proceed to bash that, and I deliberation it's bully for our strategy successful that we person a travel of nurses that travel done connected a benignant of accordant basis." 

The wellness curate said 75 of the 101 recruits are either moving successful the P.E.I. strategy already oregon taking portion successful 1 of 2 mandatory courses that let them to enactment arsenic registered nurses successful Canada. 

But McLane couldn't accidental however galore are moving successful P.E.I.'s nationalist health-care system.

'We've been abbreviated for a agelong time'

That's troubling for Brookins, whose national has been looking to way down the caller nurses and connection them support.  

"It's been precise frustrating," she said. "The recruitment initially was by the Department of Health, and… present it's inactive successful the process of going into Health P.E.I., truthful we're inactive having problems getting an existent idiosyncratic who tin reply the questions." 

Both of the Island's absorption parties person been trying to get a breakdown of the outgo of the recruitment trips. CBC News has besides asked for the numbers, but has not received them. 

Liberal Party wellness professional Gord McNeilly said it's important that caller nurses person a affirmative acquisition connected P.E.I. oregon the state risks losing them to different regions. 

"The messaging I've heard for 2 oregon 3 years is overmuch rosier than I deliberation the representation truly is astatine the end. We're grateful and thankful that the nurses are here, but the process that we undertook… wasn't precisely smooth," helium said. 

"Our nurses are the glue to that strategy and we're short, and we've been abbreviated for a agelong time. This recruitment strategy is 1 piece, but it's not what this curate said… 2 years ago, and I don't deliberation the numbers are wherever they request to be." 

Provincial officials said they're not relying wholly connected internationally trained nurses to capable the much than 200 jobs that are presently posted.

They've upped the fig of seats astatine the UPEI School of Nursing, and 65 radical volition postgraduate from the four-year programme this year. Health P.E.I. has already fixed occupation offers to 60 of them.

"We're going successful the close direction. Obviously I privation it to beryllium faster, the nationalist wants it to beryllium faster, but we're expanding our workforce and that's what we effort to bash each day," McLane said. 

"I deliberation we person the committee of the puzzle reasonably good constructed, truthful hopefully it'll accelerate implicit the coming months and years."