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Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Health minister's political interference with nursing college puts Manitoba lives at risk
Opinion When you find yourself in a hospital bed, you want to believe the nurse taking your pulse knows exactly what they're doing — not just because they passed a test once upon a time, but because they've been in the field, working with patients, staying sharp, staying current. That's the reason the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba exists — to make sure nurses practising in the province are competent, qualified and actively maintaining the skills needed to keep patients safe. But right now, the college is being told to step aside. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Deb Elias, of the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, centre, and Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, right, want tighter restrictions on incoming nurses. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has issued a directive that, in essence, tells the college to stop doing a key part of its job, which is to ensure nurses recruited from other provinces have recent, hands-on experience before they're licensed to practise here. The college has been requiring nurses transferring from other jurisdictions to have at least 450 hours of nursing experience in Canada over the past two years, or 1,225 hours in the past five years. That's hardly an onerous requirement. It translates into a little over four hours per week of nursing work, on average. It's a reasonable practice to ensure nurses transferring from other jurisdictions are up to date on the rapidly evolving demands of the profession. However, the province has told the college to drop that requirement, arguing that it's inconsistent with interprovincial labour mobility and the principles of free trade between provinces. That's wrong and it interferes with the college's statutory responsibility to regulate its own members. By issuing this directive, Asagwara is putting trade policy ahead of lives and the safety of patients. That's a pretty disturbing place to land. The college was first ordered in 2022 by the former Progressive Conservative government to drop its minimum working requirement for out-of-province nurses to comply with inter-provincial trade college complied. 'The moment we start issuing licences to nurses without verifying recent practice, we're lowering the bar. And in health care, lowering the bar has real-life consequences.' But after monitoring the outcome of that decision for two years, the college found there were disturbing consequences. Two patients died as the result of the lax policy (one of the nurses surrendered their licence voluntarily and the other was suspended) and there was a significant increase in complaints about nursing incompetence linked to the labour-mobility applicants. According to the college, many lacked basic nursing knowledge, including the ability to take or interpret vital signs, perform a health assessment and safely administer medication. That's pretty scary. As a result, the college reversed the policy and, in December, reinstituted the minimum standards. Asagwara, in turn, demanded in an April 30 letter that the college revert back to the previous government's 2022 directive. Nurses are the backbone of our health-care system. They're the ones who catch the early signs of trouble, who juggle the needs of a dozen patients at once, who make critical decisions in real time. Making sure those nurses are up to speed should have nothing to do with trade agreements and everything to do with professional standards — determined by an independent self-regulating body, not government. 'The government should stand behind the college, not overrule it.' The college is now pushing back against Asagwara's directive and has gone public with its complaint about government interference, as it should. The public has a right to know. Professional self-regulation is a long-standing principle in this country. Whether it's doctors, engineers or lawyers, we count on regulatory colleges to maintain public trust and uphold standards — not because they're infallible, but because they have the expertise to do it. The minimum working-hours requirement isn't about excluding qualified nurses from other provinces. It's about verifying that they're ready to hit the ground running, not arriving with credentials that may be stale or no longer aligned with Manitoba's standards. If we start bending the rules to meet short-term staffing targets, we invite long-term consequences. The moment we start issuing licences to nurses without verifying recent practice, we're lowering the bar. And in health care, lowering the bar has real-life consequences. The directive issued by Asagwara undermines the authority of the college and, more importantly, undermines the trust the public has in our regulatory system. What the province should be doing is working with the college to address the underlying issues — such as nursing shortages and recruitment bottlenecks — without compromising patient care. That means investing in training, supporting internationally educated nurses and improving working conditions so we can keep the nurses we have and attract the ones we need. Weekday Evenings Today's must-read stories and a roundup of the day's headlines, delivered every evening. Patient safety should be the top priority of every decision made in our health-care system. That means trusting the experts — in this case, the regulatory college — to set the rules that keep Manitobans safe. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Professional regulators should be free to do their jobs without political interference. When that independence is compromised, so is the integrity of the system. Asagwara should reverse this directive. The government should stand behind the college, not overrule it. And Manitobans should expect that their health and safety never take a back seat to trade agreements or political expedience. Let the college do its job. Our lives depend on it. Tom BrodbeckColumnist Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom. Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press's editing team reviews Tom's columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Relaxed nursing requirements jeopardize patient safety, Manitoba regulator warns health minister
The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba says the province is putting labour mobility and its support for interprovincial free trade ahead of patient safety and lives. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara ordered the college to stop requiring that 'labour mobility applicants' — nurses recently licensed in other provinces who applied to nurse in Manitoba — must have 450 hours of nursing experience in Canada in the past two years or 1,225 hours in the past five years. The minister told the college in an April 30 letter that it was breaking internal trade laws, including the Canadian Free Trade Agreement and the New West Partnership Trade Agreement's labour mobility rules, and legislation requiring regulated professions to ensure their registration practices comply with obligations of a domestic trade agreement. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Deb Elias, of the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, centre, and Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, right, want tighter restrictions on incoming nurses. Asagwara's letter said no jurisdictions in Canada have approved labour mobility exceptions for registered nurses, and directed the college to drop its 'currency of practice' requirement within 30 days. With no avenue to appeal the minister's order, the college spoke out Wednesday, saying patients are at risk and that two have died as the result of Manitoba not requiring labour mobility applicants recently licensed out of province to have current Canadian nursing experience. College registrar Deb Elias said she can't provide details of the two preventable deaths reported in November because those cases are going through the college's professional conduct process. One of the nurses surrendered their licence voluntarily and the other was suspended, the college confirmed. It said it has seen a significant increase in complaints about nursing incompetence linked to the labour mobility applicants, such as a lack of nursing knowledge, skill and judgment, the inability to take or interpret vital signs, perform a health assessment, safely administer medication or prioritize patient care. That occurred after the college was told by former Tory health minister Audrey Gordon in 2022 not to demand that out-of-province nurses have current hours of Canadian practice under their belt. 'We stopped that practice and then monitored it for a period of time,' Elias said. 'At the end of last year, 2024, we were very alarmed at the trend that we saw, with a substantial increase in complaints and the significant, gross nursing incompetence that we were seeing.' In 2023, the cohort accounted for 15 per cent of practice-related complaints despite representing a much smaller number of the total number of registered nurses. In 2024, the same group of nurses lacking current Canadian experience accounted for 50 per cent (27 of 54) of the complaints. In December, the college notified Asagwara that it was reverting back to its policy of requiring nurses have Canadian experience. Manitoba, which is dealing with a critical health-care staffing shortage is competing with other jurisdictions to recruit professionals. At the same time, it's also committed to interprovincial free trade and removing barriers to labour mobility throughout Canada in response to a trade war launched by the U.S. Asagwara did not respond to repeated requests for comment Wednesday. Elias said the college will keep talking to the health minister and the Health Department about its concerns and look for alternate solutions. 'We absolutely support labour mobility and welcome nurses and (nurse practitioners) from across the country. But we also want to uphold patient safety. That is our mandate. And we know that these two things can happen,' she said. 'What we're talking about here is, really, a group of nurses who've obtained registration elsewhere but haven't practised in recent years, so aren't up to date.'–Deb Elias 'What we're talking about here is, really, a group of nurses who've obtained registration elsewhere but haven't practised in recent years, so aren't up to date, and that we're working to resolve it. 'Once people are registered, they can work anywhere, and that is really part of our concern. The public should be concerned, but they should also know that the vast majority of registered nurses on our register have met all the standards, maintain currency and are required to do professional development.' Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said more nurses are desperately needed, but only if they're trained and can do the job. 'What I'm hearing from nurses is that this is absolutely unfair to these nurses that are coming in because they are not prepared properly for our health-care system,' Jackson said Wednesday. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. 'There's no ability for them to prepare properly because there's no way for the college to assess to see if they need that preparation.' She said the situation is difficult for for nurses working alongside the recent additions. 'You're not only doing your own job, but you are continuously trying to ensure that these nurses are supported and, through no fault of their own, doing what they need to be doing,' she said. 'I think it's in the best interest of the public to allow the college to do what they need to do to follow their mandate to ensure that Manitoba nurses, everyone practising in the Manitoba system as a nurse, is practising safely.' Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
08-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Nurses rally by the hundreds to say Manitoba's health-care system hasn't improved under NDP
Nurses crammed the steps of the Manitoba Legislature and brought along a cheeky slogan to try to capture the attention of a provincial government they say is excluding them. "Same shift, different day," hundreds of nurses chanted in unison Wednesday afternoon, while carrying signs relaying the same slogan but with the letter "f" in "shift" crossed out. Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the sassy slogan was crafted with one audience in mind. "What we're finding is the only way we get the government's attention is by actually either shaming them or coming out and being edgy and very pointed," she told reporters. Before the NDP was elected in 2023, Jackson said the union was fielding "continuous phone calls" from the then opposition party, which said fixing the province's beleaguered health-care system would be its top priority. But 18 months later, "we hear from our nurses on a daily basis that we are not seeing any appreciable change to health-care," said Jackson. Their frustrations boiled over at the rally, where nurses clad in pink waved signs, chanted and shouted. Their central message: the health-care system hasn't improved in any noticeable way, despite what the NDP government is saying. "Too many of us are leaving shifts with hearts heavy, bodies broken and nothing left to give," Jackson told the rally, prompting some nurses to shout "shame." "It's the same damn shift every single day." Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara was in the crowd, and after the rally heard from one nurse who was disappointed Premier Wab Kinew wasn't in attendance as well. When asked by reporters about the message nurses were sending, Asagwara said it was "important" to hear. "I know that nurses want more, and they deserve more," the minister said. "Our government is going to keep listening to them and taking action so that we can make health care the best place it can possibly be." Almost 600 new hires: minister Asagwara said the province has hired nearly 600 net new nurses over the last year, but the nurses' union repeated that its members haven't seen a difference in their workload. Kimberly Ross, a psychiatric nurse at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, said her working conditions have worsened in the last year and a half. She worries violence against nurses is becoming normalized. "Nurses are traumatized. The things that we have to witness and the things that we have to endure, unfortunately, are toxic and terrible." Jackson said the union has been trying to sit down with government to discuss its issues, but "we have been absolutely frozen out." "We're not going to continue to keep nurses in health care if we don't change culture. That was a huge promise made, and nothing's happened to change culture," she said. "We have to speak out, and we have to be edgy to get what we need." Disagreement over last meeting Jackson alleged she hasn't had a face-to-face meeting with Asagwara in "months," which Asagwara later disputed by saying the two met last Friday. A union official explained the two were in the same room for a committee, chaired by Tuxedo MLA Carla Compton, involving both the nurses' union and government. But that doesn't count as a meeting between the two of them, the union official said. One area Jackson and Asagwara both agreed on is a desire for progress around nurse-patient ratios. B.C. and Nova Scotia have worked to develop guaranteed staffing levels, and a few speakers at Wednesday's rally recommended the same tactic in Manitoba. In the last round of contract negotiations, Manitoba's nurses successfully bargained for a committee to study the idea. Asagwara told reporters they expect to receive recommendations from the union by early next year. Nurses rally at Manitoba Legislature to protest lack of improvement in health care 1 hour ago Duration 1:41 Hundreds of Manitoba nurses attended a rally at the legislature to call on the provincial government to "step up" and make notable improvements to a health-care system it promised to fix.
Global News
07-05-2025
- Health
- Global News
Nurses union bemoans lack of health-care progress in Manitoba, rally planned
More than 500 Manitoba nurses are expected to attend a rally at the legislature Wednesday, calling for changes in the province's health-care system. Despite a change in provincial government almost two years ago, the Manitoba Nurses Union says its members are still encountering the same broken health-care system shift after shift and that they are feeling disappointed and frustrated with the lack of progress. President Darlene Jackson told 680 CJOB's The Start that wait times are up and workplace violence is increasing, turning many nurses away from the profession. 'There's probably not a shift in the last year that there hasn't been violence in some facility, or probably all facilities, some type of violence … and that is massive. 'Nurses are leaving because of it. I had one nurse that said to me, 'I loved my job at the Health Sciences Centre, but I'm not putting my life at risk to go to work.'' Story continues below advertisement Jackson said promises made by the NDP government have, so far, seemed empty, and nurses are growing more frustrated as morale continues to deteriorate. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We are still seeing nurses working short with the incredibly heavy workloads — mandated overtime and tons of voluntary overtime is still a thing,' she said. 'Our wait times are rising eyery year. They rose again this year. Nurses are frustrated because we truly hoped that we would see some big differences in health care based on the promises and we're just not seeing that.' Jackson, who has been a nurse since 1981, told The Start the state of health care in the province is now worse than it was in the 1990s when nurses went on strike. While the MNU says it would give the province's current health care situation a D-minus grade, a spokesperson for Doctors Manitoba said that organization has a slightly more positive view. 'Looking at the evidence we have on health care, and considering there was a pandemic and years of disruption and underfunding, Doctors Manitoba would grade the progress of the last 18 months as a B-minus — improvement still needed, but on the right track,' they said in a statement. The spokesperson said Manitobans still have reasons to have concerns about the system — with 'unreasonably long' wait times and hospitals experiencing service closures, plus burnout among doctors. Improvement has been seen, however, as far as recruitment to turn around the doctor shortage and wait-time improvements in certain areas. Story continues below advertisement 'There's still a lot that as to get better, but it's safe to say Manitoba is on the right track when it comes to improving health care,' the statement said. Global News has reached out the premier and health minister for comment.
CBC
25-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
New momentum to ease labour mobility rules worries some Manitoba health-care leaders
Federal party leaders and provincial governments are trying to make it easier for workers to seamlessly move between provinces as a response to U.S. tariffs, but some health-care leaders in Manitoba aren't enthusiastic. "It just worries me that nurses are going to take this as an opportunity to strike out and look for greener pastures," Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said. There's renewed interest in eliminating interprovincial barriers that restrict workers' mobility, now seen as a way to bolster an economy hurting from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Provincial governments in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have introduced legislation or written letters to support worker movement. Jackson, however, worries about potential consequences. She's spent years sounding the alarm about overworked nurses fleeing the public health-care system to quit the profession, work for private agencies or move to other jurisdictions. With no notable change to nurses' working conditions since then, according to Jackson, "I think it's not going to be great for our health-care system" to scrap labour mobility restrictions. Campaign promises Both the Liberals and the Conservatives, the parties with a shot at forming the next federal government, have promised improved mobility. Before the federal election call, the Liberal government called for a Canada-wide credential recognition plan to be developed by June 1. Under that plan, every profession would be brought under the new structure, but it would be up to provinces and territories to decide which jobs to focus on first. The Liberals' election platform also commits to eliminating all federal hurdles to the movement of workers and implementing pan-Canadian licensing for physicians. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have vowed repeatedly to develop a national competency test that allows qualified doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals to work anywhere in Canada. Jackson said she recognizes the benefits. She said she knows of relocated nurses who currently struggle to get licensed in Manitoba. But the existing culture in health-care isn't conducive to recruiting and retaining staff, she said. "I really don't want this to be a way out of Manitoba," she said. "I would rather make things better in Manitoba and keep those nurses." Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linklater shares the worry Manitoba will be hurt by improved labour mobility. The province historically loses more people to interprovincial migration than it gains, but Manitoba's population still grows annually, mainly through immigration from other countries. "I really believe that Manitoba is a fantastic place to live and work, but to keep people here, we're going to need to remain competitive," Linklater said, referring to such areas as wages, scope of practice and working conditions. The contract the union reached with the provincial employer in March includes provisions that will help, he said. But the association representing Canada's physicians hopes the broad interest in updating labour mobility rules will bring lasting changes. "I think if not now, then when?" asked Dr. Joss Reimer, the Winnipeg-based president of the Canadian Medical Association. "This is the first time where we really heard all of the provinces, the health ministers, the premiers talking about this with a common perspective." Reimer said giving physicians the freedom to move with ease won't lead to an exodus. Physicians can already move to a new jurisdiction if they want. "It's worth the cost, it's worth the paperwork" for them, but the current rules are a barrier to out-of-province physicians who, for example, want to help a northern Manitoba hospital on a short-term basis but don't think applying for a Manitoba licence is worth it. Boon for rural hospitals: Reimer Changing the rules won't solve the physician shortage, but it will help, Reimer said. "I think the most likely outcome is we're going to see that rural and remote areas will benefit the most from a policy like this." Doctors Manitoba, a physician advocacy group, said in a statement it's intrigued by pan-Canadian licensing, but other changes, such as simplifying the path to licensing for international physicians, would better tackle the doctor shortage. The association also said easing labour mobility limits would be complicated, because doctors are regulated provincially. A Manitoba cabinet minister said helping people freely move between jurisdictions would be a net positive for the province. "You can have a good job here, own a home and sometimes even own a cottage," said Jamie Moses, minister of business, mining, trade and job creation. "These are the opportunities that we're selling to the rest of the country, on top of being a beautiful province with great opportunities, culture and life," he said. "We want to make sure more people know this." Moses said the government is focused on addressing the challenges in health care to make it an attractive field. The province hired 1,255 additional health-care workers over nine months in 2024. More mobility could mean losing health-care workers: Manitoba union heads 4 minutes ago Duration 2:04 Union leaders are concerned a proposal to ease labour mobility rules across the country will lead workers who feel overworked in Manitoba's health-care system to flee.
