HALIFAX — Nova Scotia is guaranteeing jobs to all of its nursing school graduates as the province deals with chronic staffing shortages.
In a statement read in the legislature today, Premier Tim Houston says that over the next five years every nursing graduate from schools in Nova Scotia will have a “standing offer” to work in the province.
Houston says the move is in response to recent criticism in the media that not enough is being done to recruit new nurses and to let them know that they are needed in the province.
Houston says starting immediately, graduating nurses will be told if the job they are being offered is with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, which oversees most of the province’s hospitals, the IWK Health Sciences Centre in Halifax or in the continuing care sector.
The premier says his government will also do whatever it can to make it possible for students to work in their chosen field and to work where they want in the province.
Houston says the province graduates about 700 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses a year, and it needs to hire as many as possible to fill hundreds of vacancies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2021.
The Canadian Press