Hundreds of new nurses coming to the Southern Interior

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – Hundreds of new registered nurses are being recruited to work in local hospitals under a new provincial agreement, the health minister announced today.

Provincial Health Minister Terry Lake announced today the province would work with the B.C. Nurses Union to create 1,649 regular nursing positions in health authorities across the province.

The Interior Health Authority will receive 300 of the new positions, second only to the Fraser Health Authority, which is to receive 400.

Lake said the government has been working with the nurses union to create the positions by the end of March. Recruitment efforts are expected to begin soon.

Union president Gayle Duteil praised the agreement as a solution to the overwhelming workloads some nurses face and urged nurses working casual positions who are interested in a permanent position to send an email to hireanurse@bcnu.org.

The Interior Health Authority has a $2-billion budget and is responsible for providing health care to almost 750,000 residents.

Geographically, it is the second largest health authority in B.C., covering 215,000 square kilometres and containing tertiary hospitals in Kelowna and Kamloops, plus 20 more regional and community hospitals.

Along with 1,400 hospital beds, the health authority provides 6,500 residential care and assisted living beds. It employs approximately 20,000 staff, including 1,500 physicians.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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