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Babies sent out of province for care, nurses say

A nursing shortage has forced Newfoundland and Labrador's largest health authority to send newborn babies out of province for care, the nurses union says.

31/08/2008 12:36:50 PM

CBC News

Debbie Forward, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador nurses union, said the situation at Eastern Health is troubling.

"Nurses don't want to see moms and babies being sent out of the province for care so they want their units staffed adequately so they can provide care," she said.

Forward said a shortage of neonatal nurses meant newborns had to be sent out of province three times over the summer because of a combination of an increase in patients and staffing shortage.

Forward said the nurses who work on the neonatal unit at the Janeway Children's Hospital in St. John's have been told by their employer they must now work overtime shifts because the unit is not adequately staffed.

"Eastern Health has scheduled 14 mandatory overtime shifts at the [neonatal intensive care] unit for the next week alone. While employers are entitled to mandate overtime if no other nurse is available, scheduling it in advance as a solution to the nursing shortage is both inappropriate and unsustainable," Forward said.

"While the employer will argue they may cancel the scheduled shifts if they determine they are not required, these nurses are unfairly left hanging in the balance until the very last minute."

The neonatal unit at the St. John's hospital has 25 intensive-care beds.

It's not the first time the union has spoken out about nursing shortages in the province. In July, a government report showed Newfoundland and Labrador had more than 1,000 vacant positions for registered nurses as of April 1, a situation Forward described as a crisis.