New Brunswick is facing a severe shortage of nurses and the problem may get worse before it gets better.
New Brunswick Nurses Union president Paula Doucet says of the nearly 7,000 nurses working in the province right now, about 40 percent are eligible to retire over the next five years.
Doucet says government, the two health authorities and other stakeholders have come together looking for solutions.
“There are several vacancies not being filled throughout their facilities and they have struck a committee of different stakeholders to sit down and actually look at strategies for the short term and the long term to address these issues,” she notes.
Doucet says the health authorities are also looking beyond New Brunswick and the region in an effort to recruit and retain nurses.
