Thank you, Mr. Speaker I thought you forgot me. Or are you just favoring my colleague there?
Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, you know, this a long ongoing issue. This is something that I talked about even in my campaign. You know, this is not something that's new with the difference between locum nurses and indeterminate nurses and the unfairness and how it creates this unhealthy workplace. You know, when working with the people and you're having to have each other's back, you know, and you get frustrated. So I think one of the first questions I have is will the Minister commit to having an NTHSSA hire an independent party to hear from the nurses who are indeterminate, locum, do exit interviews with all health care staff, make that mandatory, and to report back to the staff that have put that information forward and to the NTHSSA on the findings and then make it public so that this House and everyone else can hear it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes that she is in fact unforgettable. And I do appreciate her advocacy always about nurses. And I'm alive to the issues around job satisfaction. They've been reported to me personally and reported publicly that there is dissatisfaction within the NTHSSA, and some places, about working conditions, compensation, and so on and so forth.
I am very interested in hearing from the nurses. I can say that it is easier to retain a nurse than to find a nurse and get him or her to move here and take that job. We have an overall vacancy rate in the NTHSSA of about 17 percent. So anyone that we can keep rather than see out the door, this is a victory all around.
So we have been trying, in fact, that work in our mandate by saying that we would take measures to recruit and retrain resident health care professionals in the time of this Assembly. So I am going to commit to working with the department to gather the input of the nurses and to find out what we can do to understand why they do leave and whether there are things that we can do that would make their job satisfaction better. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. I believe she was talking about me. Sorry, I messed up on my list so I'll put you on the top tomorrow. Top of the list, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And yes, I was talking about you; that's okay.
So will the Minister also commit to, if we're going to do this kind of work and she's going to talk to her department and hopefully that, you know the thing like I said in my statement, you know, you're not going to bite the hand that feeds you or, you know, and so some nurses fear because, you know, when you live in a smaller community or you're working with a tight group of people, you're all friends, you know. And I managed the nursing units in Inuvik, and they were my friends. They were my colleagues, they were my staff, so, how do you come forward and really say what you want to say when you can't do it anonymously? So I think that is one of the things that I would like a commitment, if they could come forward and do this anonymously so that their words can get on record as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the point that the Member is making, and I can commit that information collected will be reported in a way that can't be attributed to any individual. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that to the Minister. I think the nurses in the territory will be happy to be able to provide input into this. And I feel like this is something that should happen sooner than later. When we come back after this session, it will be starting our third we'll be going into our third year, right? Yeah, second, yeah, third or yeah, we've got two years done. Wow, the pandemic has gotten to my brain. So we are going into our third year. So I would like this work to be done sooner than later, if possible, so that way we can actually try to meet that priority in this government. So will the Minister commit to that? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a new idea that the MLA is presenting today so I can't really commit to how long will it take to make it operational and to provide the results to her. But I have committed to looking at some of the ideas that she raised that are, it seems to me, quite simple to implement things like exit interviews and job satisfaction surveys and so on. So I will do my best to provide this information as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the last commitments that I would ask the Minister of is if her department has been working with RNANTNU to see where these if these concerns have been raised with them within, you know and how the department can work with RNANTNU to possibly get a lot of the information that's coming forward. And if that's just another commitment that I'd like to ask for today. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. The NTHSSA has a territorial nursing council and they meet regularly with the Registered Nurses Association and they seek their advice on all kinds of issues, including recruitment and retention. And, you know, if we're going to develop ways in which to survey nurses about job satisfaction, we would certainly turn to them and ask their advice on that. I want to say as well that nurses are unionized. They belong to the UNW. And they also have the option of pursuing their issues through the Union of Northern Workers and we have a regular working group with the Union of Northern Workers where we where we hear the concerns that are brought forward and try to resolve them. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
