Nova Scotia government to limit the use of travel nurses

The Nova Scotia government is taking steps to end its reliance on private nursing agencies by limiting the amount of time someone employed as a travel nurse can work in the province.

The Nova Scotia government is taking steps to end its reliance on private nursing agencies by limiting the amount of time someone employed as a travel nurse can work in the province.

The province has spent millions of dollars in recent years on contracts with private agencies for travel nurses who work here temporarily to address staffing shortages. They are often paid twice or more the hourly rate of nurses employed by the Nova Scotia system.

But Health Minister Michelle Thompson said in an interview Monday that her government decided the money could be better spent on people who are a part of the public system and that the use of agency nurses works against efforts to fill the more than 1,000 vacancies in Nova Scotia.

"There is a lucrative nature to this contract and it is a significant cost that, if we were able to lessen, we could reinvest in the system. I understand there's a number of reasons why people would want to do agency nursing, but we want those people back in the system," she told CBC.