Nursing externship programs cut in Quebec

Nursing student externship programs, which allow future nurses to practice certain activities, are being curtailed by cuts to the healthcare system. The Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ) and the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) are calling on the Legault government to issue a clear directive to quickly restore access to externships across the province.

FIQ, which has more than 80,000 members who are nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, denounced in a press release released Monday the health cuts affecting internships offered to nursing students as part of externship programs. 

In an interview with The Canadian Press last Friday, the president of the OIIQ, Luc Mathieu, described the situation. 

“Students who are doing their college training—after two years, and those who are doing their university training, after one year—can ask us, at the Order, for extern status. This authorizes them to perform certain nursing activities. Not completely, since they are apprentices, but during the summer periods for example, and until very recently, even throughout the year. They can lend a hand to the care teams. But now, with the $1.5 billion cut that Santé Québec is making at the government’s request, there are several institutions that have decided to cut these positions,” explains Mathieu. 

He sees this as inconsistent with the government’s desire to improve access to healthcare. “It’s not a good idea,” he comments. “It’s a solution for today that will create tomorrow’s problems.”

Mathieu believes this is a barrier to preparing young nurses to enter the profession. He explains that these internships help students pass their nursing entrance exams and, subsequently, help them better integrate into their professional environment. He deplores the fact that Santé Québec is acting with “a short-term budgetary logic.” 

“We’re looking for money, and I understand that the network is under pressure, but this isn’t a good economic decision because investing in young people, in the future generation, is an investment,” argues the OIIQ president. “Because we prepare them better, and we know from testimonials that having external status contributes; it’s a retention factor.”

Summer vacation setbacks

The FIQ agrees, emphasizing that this harms the training of nurses, their integration into the network, and staff retention. The federation maintains that the decision has already been implemented by several CISSSs and CIUSSSs.

“The government and many institutions have announced in recent weeks that they are cutting this program. We’re going to lose new staff this summer, people who normally come to help us in the health network in the summer, and it’s going to be extremely difficult,” warns FIQ Vice-President Jérôme Rousseau. 

He also argued that internships in the healthcare field are rarely paid. “In the medium term, this is a very bad signal in terms of attraction and retention,” he said in an interview. “We already have a significant shortage of staff, nurses, and healthcare professionals in the healthcare system. This is one more factor that will make it difficult in the coming years if we continue on this path of cutting externships.”

In addition, the healthcare network is in “catch-up mode,” which means that institutions are trying to offer more care and services to overcome waiting lists, particularly for surgery. “It’s clear that there will be impacts if we prevent externs from coming to work, because these are vacations that we won’t be able to give,” explains Rousseau. “There will be people missing from the care teams, so it will either generate service shortages or, ultimately, it will cause mandatory overtime in the teams that are already in place.”

The FIQ vice-president also indicated that some institutions were counting on this replacement for the summer period. “We cannot afford in the health network to prevent externs from coming to work, because we need them. There are even teams waiting for them to be able to integrate them into their work team so they can take vacation this summer,” he mentions. 

The FIQ and the OIIQ are urging the government to recover funds elsewhere.

—The Canadian Press’s health content is funded through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. Editorial choices are solely those of The Canadian Press.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews