(Jacob Serebrin/ CBC News) — Nursing students and recent graduates from Quebec nursing programs say working conditions in the public health-care system are driving them to the private sector, further exacerbating a shortage of nurses in provincial hospitals.
Audrey-Ann Bissonnette-Clermont, 27, graduated with a nursing degree a year ago. She started out in a Montreal emergency room but decided to shift careers and take a job in telemedicine.
“I got into the profession because I like people, I like to work with people,” she said. “It’s been hard to leave behind the face-to-face contact, but it’s not difficult for my mental health.”
Bissonnette-Clermont says, unlike many nurses working in Quebec hospitals, she wasn’t required to work a significant amount of overtime during the pandemic. But she says the past year was still draining. (…)