Health Minister Mike Murphy says a province wide nursing shortage will work itself out.Murphy didn’t offer any solutions Wednesday to deal with the shortage, which has forced River Valley Health to cancel some non-essential surgeries at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.River Valley Health officials said last week that the Chalmers hospital is short about 25-30 nurses, while the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville is short 29 nurses.But Murphy said the province has increased the number of nurses being trained, which will help fight the shortage.“With regard to the numbers of nurses that we’re short, there’s anecdotal stories all over the province that somebody’s short 30, 60, 80 and the numbers build,” he said.“And then there are advocates out there who say we’re hundreds and hundreds short. The reality is that we’ve added about 110 new seats in the last few years.”Murphy said the Liberal government’s provincial health plan will include several initiatives aimed at improving conditions for New Brunswick’s nurses, but he said he couldn’t disclose the nature of those programs at this time.“The nursing shortage will in time resolve itself. However, we will have some accent in our health plan with regard to that,” he said. “We see a shortage of anywhere from 150 to 225 nurses in New Brunswick now and certainly it’s there.”Mardi Cockburn, chairwoman of River Valley Health’s board of directors, said she doesn’t believe the increased number of nurse trainees in New Brunswick will be able to meet demands for nurses in New Brunswick.“Our chief nurse feels that we’ll still be short,” she said. “The province is bringing in new programs, which will take nurses to operate, and that will take nurses from existing (duties) … I don’t really think that there will be enough nurses, but we’re getting better. He’s correct about that.”Marilyn Quinn, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said action needs to be taken soon because a significant percentage of nurses are eligible to retire in the next few years.“It’s already evidenced by the fact that the Dr. Everett Chalmers (hospital) had to cancel surgeries and we haven’t even hit the peak period where we know a number of nurses are eligible to retire,” she said.

“If we’re seeing that today, then we can only anticipate it will increase over time. The shortage won’t be resolved in the short term. It will only be resolved in the long term with good initiatives, and I think there have been some steps taken and we’re anxious to see how the (minister’s health) plan addresses this.” Read more