Signing bonuses are a sign of the times as desperate hospitals seek nurses

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As hospitals move beyond the most critical stages of the pandemic and begin to catch up on thousands of missed surgeries, a tweet from Queensway Carleton Hospital this week offered a sign of the times.

“You may be eligible for a $10,000 signing bonus,” the hospital tweeted while promoting an ad recruiting nurses for its emergency department.

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Queensway Carleton, like virtually every hospital in the province, is desperately in need of nurses. It is looking for 60 full- and part-time nurses, including 20 in its emergency department alone.

Those vacancies potentially represent the “biggest limiting factor right now” to being able to work through postponed surgeries and procedures quickly, said Greg Hedgecoe, the hospital’s vice-president of people, performance improvement and diagnostic services.

“We want to make sure there are no barriers to catching up on surgeries.”

Our Emergency Department is hiring permanent and temporary RNs! You’re a critical thinker with the desire to practice full-scope nursing in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment. Parking onsite. You may be eligible for a $10,000 signing bonus. Join QCH: https://t.co/PsJW2h89JM pic.twitter.com/BwbpCqgH5k — Queensway Carleton Hospital and Foundation (@QCHOttawa) June 10, 2021

Queensway Carleton, like other hospitals, is taking advantage of some unusual strategies to attract nurses, including promoting provincial programs that offer $10,000 signing bonuses to some eligible nurses who commit to signing on for at least 12 months. The bonuses, being offered by The Ottawa hospital and others as well, are mainly aimed at nurses who are retired, unemployed or working in another province.

Queensway Carleton is also part of a regional recruitment effort in which 19 hospitals from across the Champlain Region, which covers most of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa, have joined forces with long-term care homes and laboratories to attract nurses to the region. The regional recruitment campaign is another sign of the times when it comes to the unprecedented shortage of nurses — one that is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Across the region, there are more than 800 nursing vacancies at hospitals, said Hedgecoe. That number is down from a high of 1,000 vacancies last November.

Since then, hospitals in the region have hired close to 1,900 nurses and personal support workers, with the help of the campaign. About 20 to 25 nurses are being hired from outside the region every month.

“We definitely are in a regional, provincial and national war for talent. It is no longer the high-tech war for talent — it is for nursing talent,” said Hedgecoe.

The openings represent nurses who are leaving the profession — some to go to the U.S. — and the fact that demand grew during the pandemic.

But Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said the province must take a different approach to solve nursing shortages — a longstanding problem that became more severe during the pandemic.

Bonuses, she said, are disruptive because they simply move nurses around — from long-term care or other places — instead of addressing the root causes of the shortage.

One of those causes has been long-term understaffing that has now been exacerbated by the pandemic, she said.

Grinspun said she is pleased to see the province is supporting more nursing graduates in the province, but she said more has to be done, including making it easier to recruit nurses from overseas and better strategies to retain nurses.

Many nurses are now leaving Ontario to work in the U.S., where recruitment drives are under way, or are leaving the profession. Some have told surveys that they plan to leave as soon as the pandemic is over. A key to retention, she said, would be to end Bill 124 that limited public sector wage increases in Ontario — including for nurses — to one per cent.

There are numerous opportunities in Ontario for nurses right now and those need to be highlighted, but she said many are exhausted from the pandemic and thinking about other careers.

“We need to very quickly send a message that things will get better so we don’t lose them to somewhere else, because that is happening.”

The RNAO is calling for a provincial recruitment strategy for nurses.

Wendy Nicklin, a nurse with extensive healthcare experience in quality and safety, is in regular contact with senior colleagues who are concerned about the nursing shortage and difficulties international nurses have working in Canada, among other things.

She agreed that retention strategies are needed to avoid even bigger shortages. Making sure workplaces are focused on quality of care and work-life balance will retain workers, Nicklin said.

“Recruitment and retention must be well planned and addressed in a comprehensive strategy.”

Queensway Carleton’s Hedgecoe said “all options” must be explored to deal with staffing challenges in hospitals, including more funding to educate nurses and expedited licensing for internationally-trained nurses.

Hiring more nurses, he said, is aimed at both patient care and staff, who have been working overtime to fill the gaps.

“Our health care workers have been amazing. They are so dedicated, they are working tirelessly. The focus on recruitment is also about having enough staff to give them vacations and not requiring them to work the overtime they are working. People need a break.”