Alberta doing little to recruit and retain student nurses educated in Alberta: UNA

Despite promises to address shortages of nurses in Alberta, little appears to be happening to encourage nursing students educated in Alberta to remain in the province to work.
 
“It is imperative a robust recruitment strategy supporting entry to practice is created and implemented with the goal of retaining provincially educated nurses to remain and practice in Alberta,” said United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith in a letter sent Monday to the chief executives of Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health.
 
There are 10 educational institutions offering nursing degrees in Alberta, and the University of Alberta’s program is recognized as the top nursing program in Canada, Smith reminded AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulous and Covenant CEO Patrick Dumelie in the letter.
 
Yet conversations with current nursing students reveal recruitment to employment opportunities for new graduates of nursing programs in Alberta is barely occurring, she said.
 
Similarly, Smith added, the ability of students to obtain employment as Undergraduate Nursing Employees, known as UNEs, is extremely limited as well.
 
The robust recruiting strategy urged by UNA would also support Alberta Health Services’ written commitment to retention and recruitment initiatives included in a letter of understanding in the union’s current collective agreement with AHS and Covenant Health.
 
Letter of Understanding No. 7 states: “AHS has committed to sufficient numbers of regular and temporary positions greater than six months available to be able to hire at least 70 per cent of Alberta nursing student graduates.”
 
The letter of understanding also provides for a Transitional Graduate Nurses Program and outlines several ways to retain and recruit Registered Nurses and registered Psychiatric Nurses, and to create at least 20 and up to 1,000 regular positions in each year of the collective agreement, which is in force until the end of 2024.
 
“AHS need to direct greater resources towards advertising and promoting this opportunity,” Smith said in the letter.