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Union unhappy with hiring nurses from overseas

Last Updated: Friday, February 2, 2007 | 7:05 PM ET

CBC News

The Alberta nurses union says poaching from overseas is not the way to solve Calgary's nurse shortage.

Hiring 140 nurses from the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates isn't a fair solution to Calgary's nursing crunch, said Michelle Senkow, a spokeswoman for United Nurses of Alberta, on Thursday.

"We have a global nursing shortage. Who would we be taking these nurses from? Is it another country that desperately needs nurses? We don't like our Canadian nurses to go elsewhere."

Senkow says more spaces are needed in nursing schools, and the health authority should put more resources and energy toward keeping existing staff.

"I'm still hearing from people that are so dissatisfied with the job and the work life that they are leaving."

Qualified and fluent: health region

The Calgary Health Region announced Wednesday that conditional offers of employment were made to 140 nurses in the two countries after a successful recruitment drive.

The new recruits are all qualified nurses who are fluent in English, but some may need upgrading to meet Canadian standards, said Noreen Linton, the region's associate chief nursing officer.

All of the recruits will have to go through Canada's immigration process and be licensed before they can start working in Calgary hospitals. The new nurses are expected to start arriving in the next three to six months.

Last month, employment ads for "hard to fill positions" in Calgary appeared in newspapers across the country.

"We will continue to raise awareness nationally and internationally that the Calgary Health Region has attractive employment opportunities with excellent salaries, benefits packages and learning opportunities for nurses and health-care professionals," said Susan Cassidy, an executive director at the health region, in a statement.

The Calgary Health Region estimates it is short about 650 nurses.

In December, the head of the health authority said as many as 70 beds will be closed on any given day to ensure patient safety because of a shortage of staff, mostly nurses.

This story is now closed to commenting.

Internal Links

Staff shortage forces health region to close beds
Calgary difference: A booming population and strained hospitals

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