Mr. Speaker, this is in reference to my Member’s statement. I realize that Human Resources is responsible for the graduate placement program, but I believe that the departments, and presumably their authorities, make the final decisions on hires. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services: is there a clear understanding of a northern hire preference policy within our health institutions, and how is this reinforced from time to time?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a clear understanding within our health and social services system to follow the affirmative action plan and to train and hire as many northern employees and graduates as possible.
I probably don’t need to state that the role of nurses is particularly enhanced when they are from the community and bring the local and cultural understanding and sometimes even linguistic services to their work. Is this fully appreciated by our health managers, and what is being done to ensure that this appreciation shows itself in the hiring practices?
Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. Our health authorities are encouraged to hire Northerners.
In the situation to which the Member is referring, we had one of the biggest graduating nursing classes this year from Aurora College. Out of 15 grads, I think almost all of them were offered a northern placement. Ten of them have accepted their placements in the Territories, and seven were placed at Stanton Territorial Health Authority.
I understand that not everybody who wanted to work at Stanton was offered a job at Stanton. The constituent that the Member is referring to was placed in Hay River, and unfortunately that did not work for her personal circumstances.
Thanks to the Minister for those remarks. Why are we hiring locums from afar when we have local nurses available to do the job?
I think we are talking about two different things. I do acknowledge and want to say that we could do a better job at supporting and helping the new grads coming out of college. That’s one of the reasons why not all nurse grads can be placed in a setting: they do need support, and we need to make sure that experienced nurses and staff are able to be there to help them.
On the use of locum nurses, any nurse you talk to will tell you no nurse is the same as the nurse right next to her. Nurses come with different backgrounds and different qualifications, and we have to make sure that we have the right mix of nurses. When we hire a locum nurse when there is an existing new grad nurse in the Territories, it could be because the locum nurse provides a different background that the new grad doesn’t have. Obviously, we need to make sure the new grads get the training necessary to be fully skilled at the job they’re assigned to.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the specific case I have in the back of my mind, the person had considerable experience: over a decade and a half in mental health and addictions. It seems to me it should be appropriate and should be easily slotted in. I’m wondering why we continue to hire even short-term locums from afar when we could be building the experience of our graduates here.
The Minister did acknowledge that more needs to be done. I’d like to hear exactly what is being done, then, to address that need.
First of all, we have reduced the use of locum nurses substantially. We have a larger pool of casual nurses registered with the nursing association who are available to work in the Territories. This is less costly than bringing in locums. I could provide the Member with the stats on that.
In the situation that the Member is talking about, particular to his constituent, I understand that she wanted to work in the psychiatric unit. That’s a very, very small unit, and it could be that the hospital was not able to accommodate that situation. I’d be happy to undertake seeing what other options were made available to her. I think that talking about locums and a new grad placement are separate things, and I’d be happy to look into that specific situation.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
