From the WhiteHorse Daily Star: http://whitehorsestar.com/archive/st...e-whole-story/

The head of the Yukon Registered Nursing Association says the number of registered nurses licensed to work in the territory does not reflect the on-the-ground reality.

Early this month, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released its report on nursing in Canada. It showed 367 registered nurses were licensed for the Yukon as of 2009 – an increase over 2005, when the territory had 302 licensed.

“The number (in the CIHI report) is accurate, but these nurses are not all working in the territory at any given time,” Patricia McGarr, executive director of the territory’s nursing association, said in an interview last week.

“So someone can work here, such as agency nurses, who may come for a period of weeks to fill in gaps and they may leave after that time.”

Those agency nurses are now licensed to work in the Yukon – and are captured in the CIHI report – but they may never work in the territory again.

To operate its continuing care and long-term care programs, the Department of Health and Social Services currently employs 90 registered nurses. The Yukon Hospital Corp. employs 153 registered nurses – 140 at Whitehorse General Hospital and 13 at Watson Lake’s cottage hospital.

Compared to the CIHI’s report on the number of licensed nurses for the Yukon, that leaves a gap of 124 nurses.

“There’s quite a turnover rate of nurses working in the Yukon and all those people are taken into account (in the CIHI report),” McGarr said. “If anything, it shows a lack of stability in the workforce.”

Asked how many nurses the Yukon requires to deliver health care in the territory, McGarr said with two new hospitals – one in Dawson City and another in Watson Lake – set to open in 2011/2012 – that is something the government should be investigating.

“We do need a long-term examination of the number of nurses we’re going to need,” she said.

“It’s very important and very important across the country ... we all know there’s an aging population and we’re going to see a lot more people with chronic illnesses, and if we want to ensure they’re properly cared for, that’s one of the things we need to look at.”

The territory’s registered nursing association is pushing for a review of changes in the number of permanent positions over the last five years.

The association also acknowledged that part of the increase in licensed registered nurses in the Yukon was due to retired nurses who re-licensed to assist with the H1N1 immunization program.

The Yukon Registered Nursing Association is the regulatory and professional organization for registered nurses in the territory and provides the CIHI with statistics on registered nurses on an annual basis.