Concerns around private staffing agencies were raised early last week by Linda Silas, President of the Canadian Federation on Nurses Unions, in an opinion piece published by National Newswatch.
Here is an excerpt:
Insufficient staffing, high workloads, unpredictable scheduling and a lack of respect are the top reasons nurses say they’re considering leaving their workplace.
Years of canceled vacations, record-high hours of overtime and missing your kids’ soccer games add up.
In many ways, nurses have been left with no choice but to leave behind their full-time jobs with benefits and pensions to work in private staffing agencies if they want any semblance of work-life balance: a day off, time with their families, or simply going home when their shift is done.
Indeed, more than one in three nurses are interested in agency work or increasing the work they already do. When it comes to early-career nurses, that number is even higher – 49.5% are looking to private staffing agencies.
These parasitic private staffing agencies are well poised to profit off the unsustainable working conditions that are fuelling the nation’s dire staffing crisis.
Ensuring permanent health care jobs in our communities are good, attractive jobs is critical to both retaining nurses and countering this over-reliance on private staffing agencies.
To read the full op-ed, please click this link.