Nurses gathered outside a hospital in eastern Newfoundland on Tuesday to protest restrictions on their summer vacations.

"They can't hire more nurses here and the ones they do have — they are just using to the point where we're becoming exhausted," said Jocelyn Rice, a veteran of 20 years who joined the lunch-hour demonstration in front of the Clarenville hospital.

Nurses in Clarenville are used to taking three weeks vacation leave every summer, but have been told that this year they may take only two weeks each.

Debbie Forward, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union, who drove from St. John's to support the demonstration, said the issue reflects a staffing shortage that stretches across the province.

"This demonstration is in Clarenville today, but we could have it in many sites across the province," Forward told CBC News.

Other sites, she said, have been beset by problems, with "relief and summer annual leave and vacancies, and not enough relief staff so nurses can get a day off … It's Clarenville today, it could be somewhere else tomorrow."

Pat Coish-Snow, a chief operating officer responsible for Eastern Health's hospitals in Clarenville, Bonavista and Burin, said nine new nurses have been hired, but they will not be starting until the fall.

"I certainly hope the nurses are able to work with us in resolving their concerns," Coish-Snow said.

"We certainly want nurses to stay at home and stay at this facility, and we certainly will work collaboratively with them on a retention strategy to keep them here."

Health Minister Ross Wiseman said recruitment will be key to solving a crunch. He noted that Eastern Health has been able to convert about 200 casual positions to permanent this year.

The nurses' collective agreement stipulates that some annual leave must be taken between May and October, "but not always necessarily in July and August," Wiseman said.

Meanwhile, Eastern Health is reducing surgeries to ease workloads.