VCH and the BC Nurses Union have joined forces to come up with an innovative strategy to address ongoing staffing issues in the JP Operating Rooms (JPOR) at Vancouver General Hospital.

Working together, they developed an agreement that recognizes the comprehensive training and orientation JPOR nurses require to work in BC’s only Accredited Level One Trauma Centre and Centre of Excellence for several highly specialized services such as solid organ transplants. Unfortunately, the JPOR continues to experience high nurse vacancy rates and on-call far in excess of other specialized areas.

BCNU President Gayle Duteil along with Vancouver Acute COO Vivian Eliopoulos and VCH VP of Employee Engagement Anne Harvey met with JPOR staff earlier today to discuss the agreement and how it will support them and the valuable work they provide.

In sharing details of the agreement, Eliopoulos said it showed a “creative and innovative” approach to addressing issues like rotation and shift scheduling that impacts recruitment and retention to the JPOR.

It was a message echoed by Duteil, who praised VCH for working with the union to find creative ways to address a serious staffing issue with implications for operations and patient care. “This is positive news and BCNU is pleased that Vancouver Coastal Health has shown leadership with this issue with an agreement that provides incentives for nurses to work in the OR,” Duteil said.

They said that changes are being made to the vacancy posting process for the JPOR, with preference given to VCH-educated nurses. There will also be investments in OR nursing education and other strategies to encourage recruitment and retention, along with a requirement that new OR nurses educated by VCH must remain with a VCH OR unit as a regular employee for a minimum of three years. This joint agreement is temporary but will stay in place while JPOR addresses its staffing issues and achieves a stable complement of OR nurses.

This agreement will help us to address the immediate need to meet the major staffing challenges in the JPOR and alleviate the significant risk to specialized patient care. VCH values and respects the work performed by all staff including those working in specialty units across VCH.

Related articles

VIDEO: Join the exciting OR Clinical Educator Team!