‘We don’t know who they are’: Union concerned over P.E.I.’s handling of international nursing recruits [Video]

P.E.I. health officials are celebrating the results of recent overseas trips to recruit new nurses, but the union that’s supposed to be representing them says the province isn’t providing any information about who they are or where they’re working.

“We can’t get a hold of them. We don’t know who they are,” said Barbara Brookins, president of the P.E.I. Nurses’ Union, which represents staff in the public health-care system. 

“We need to know at what point they become our members, and then we also want to know what’s happening to them in the meantime….

“We don’t want these nurses to get out there, and be struggling in an area where the supports are not in place.”

Officials with the province’s Office of Immigration and Health P.E.I. conducted interviews with dozens of internationally educated nurses over the past couple of years, twice in Dubai and once in Singapore. 

At the time, …