Health P.E.I. posting 500 permanent full-time jobs in effort to stabilize workforce

Gwyneth Egan · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 20, 2025 7:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Health P.E.I. is posting 500 imperishable full-time positions for existent unit members, hoping to alteration existing part-time and casual workers into full-time employees.

Having much full-time unit volition marque it easier for the wellness bureau to schedule and fig retired what perfect staffing should look like, said Maura McKinnon, the interim quality resources enforcement with Health P.E.I. 

"When we person much full-time people, it truly allows america to stabilize the system, and with that, we are truly capable to assistance trim overtime and marque definite that radical are capable to get vacations," she said. 

The nonsubjective is to capable arsenic galore of the recently posted positions with interior applicants arsenic soon arsenic imaginable earlier opening the process to outer applicants, she said. 

Health P.E.I. presently has a vacancy complaint of 18 per cent, which means astir 1,300 jobs are vacant crossed the system, McKinnon said. 

Nurses national reacts

The determination is simply a large woody for immoderate wellness unions connected the Island. 

"This is unprecedented. I've ne'er heard of this before, oregon seen that galore jobs spell up astatine the aforesaid time," said Barbara Brookins, the president of the P.E.I. Nurses' Union, which represents much than 1,400 registered nurses and caregiver practitioners. 

The national expects astir 150 of the caller postings to beryllium for imperishable nursing jobs, Brookins said. 

She said having much radical successful imperishable jobs is simply a bully happening for the system, and besides tends to beryllium amended for recruitment. 

"If we're looking to enlistee either caller graduates oregon internationally educated nurses, oregon idiosyncratic from extracurricular of Prince Edward Island, the full-time committedness is usually what radical are looking for," she said. 

But galore nurses inactive similar the flexibility of part-time enactment and the quality to accidental nary to definite shifts, Brookins pointed out. 

She besides questioned whether those who trust connected part-time enactment would spot their hours spell down owed to the summation successful imperishable full-time staff. 

"Until everything benignant of settles down, there's going to beryllium a play of upheaval close present wherever radical are not going to beryllium assured… that they're going to beryllium capable to get those other shifts, they're not definite whether oregon not they privation to perpetrate to afloat time," Brookins said. 

Health P.E.I. is not getting escaped of part-time and casual positions, McKinnon said. 

"We volition ever person casuals successful our strategy due to the fact that immoderate radical volition ever privation to enactment casual," she said. 

'Move successful the close direction'

Green MLA Matt MacFarlane said he's been hearing health-care workers enactment the thought of much full-time positions for immoderate clip now. 

"This could perchance beryllium a mode to steadfast up and unafraid these front-line health-care workers ... [so] that we don't request to trust truthful overmuch connected the costly question nurses coming successful to backfill positions arsenic well," helium said. 

While it seems similar a "move successful the close direction," MacFarlane said the crushed truthful galore workers person moved to part-time positions is due to the fact that it's the lone mode to warrant that they volition get immoderate clip off, particularly successful highest abrogation periods erstwhile their children are disconnected school. 

"Moving to a full-time suite of positions sounds great," helium added. 

"We conscionable privation to marque definite that the radical who are consenting to instrumentality those positions up are going to person the prime of beingness and the balanced manner to beryllium capable to not beryllium astatine enactment much than 100 per cent of the time," erstwhile overtime is factored in, helium said.