BC Nurses’ Union says province can’t recruit its way out of shortage
Posted May 13, 2025 2:57 pm.
Last Updated May 13, 2025 5:34 pm.
The BC Nurses’ Union says it’s good news that the province is working to recruit doctors and nurses from the U.S., but says there’s more work to do.
B.C. Premier David Eby announced Monday that the province had seen a 127 per cent rise in applications from American nurses, amounting to 113 granted registrations.
Eby says the increase is due to B.C. having cut application wait times for nurses from four months to a matter of days last month.
BC Nurses’ Union Vice President Tristan Newby says the numbers need to be put into context.
“B.C. has a 6,000-nurse deficit. And when you take into consideration the increased number of nurses that we’re going to need for the implementation of minimum nurse-patient ratios, it will be more than that. So while 113 is a good first step, we have a long way to go,” said Newby.
He says recruitment alone won’t solve all of B.C.’s problems, even if the province could hire thousands of nurses.
“We need to be looking at how we can be retaining our nurses, because nurses have a five-year attrition rate of about 50 per cent. And in a system where nurses are exposed to escalating violence, it is challenging to be able to retain the folks that are here, trained locally, willing to work, but the system just doesn’t support them,” Newby explained.
“One cannot recruit their way out of this global nursing shortage.”
He says internationally educated nurses are held to the same standard as Canadian-educated nurses, but the provincial health authorities should still provide robust orientation and mentorship for them to succeed in a new home.
“Simply because I worked in an emergency department within California doesn’t mean that I know the system or the culture or the tools of the trade here in British Columbia. And in the absence of that holistic approach to mentoring, orientating, the failure rate is high.”
Newby says he also hopes the new recruits are incentivized to work in rural communities, where staffing shortages have been disproportionately felt.
—With files from Michael Williams.
