On the Move Partnership researchers in Nova Scotia are investigating the employment-related geographic mobility (E-RGM) of professional and paraprofessional healthcare workers in Nova Scotia.
Key objectives:
● To examine how healthcare restructuring, changing immigration and labour policies and extensive outmigration, have influenced the mobility and working conditions of professional and paraprofessional healthcare workers in Nova Scotia.
● To interview healthcare workers who have traveled into Nova Scotia from other countries/provinces to work; Nova Scotia workers who have left the province to work in other provinces; and those who travel within the province for employment reasons (e.g. travel more than two hours to and from work or are mobile when working, such as homecare workers).
● To explore how workers’ mobility influences their work and careers as well as their relationships with co-workers, patients/clients, families, unions/ professional associations and their home and host communities.
● To obtain the perspective of select employers and unions on the benefits and consequences of E-RGM.
Project Phases
Phase 1 – Collection and contextual analysis of literature and policy documents on mobility, health human resources and labour in Nova Scotia. Development of surveys, interview guides. Ethics applications.
Phase 2 – Qualitative interviews conducted with professional and paraprofessional healthcare workers. A small number of interviews conducted with select employers and unions. A survey of mobile healthcare workers.
Phase 3 – Analysis of data and dissemination of results.
Current Developments
We have completed over 30 one-on-one interviews with healthcare workers who are mobile for work purposes. We have interviewed physicians, nurses (RNs and LPNs), social workers and continuing care workers. We have also conducted an online survey with mobile social workers and continuing care workers about their experiences of mobile work. We have also completed a small number of interviews with select employers and unions.
If you are interested in more information, please contact Audrey Kruisselbrink at audrey.kruisselbrink@dal.ca.
Results
● Employment-Related Geographic Mobility of Healthcare Workers: Nova Scotia Policy Brief (December 2019)
● Community Research Report: Healthcare Workers “On the Move” (December 2019)
Nova Scotia Research Team
● Dr. Lois Jackson, Healthy Populations Institute and School of Health & Human Performance, Dalhousie University, co-lead NS component and member of On the Move Executive
● Dr. Ivy Bourgeault, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health Human Resources, University of Ottawa, co-lead NS component, and member of Program Committee
● Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, member of Program Committee and lead on Temporary Foreign Workers
● Dr. Michael Leiter, Department of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and lead on NS survey
● Dr. Sheri Price, School of Nursing and Healthy Population Institute, Dalhousie University
● Audrey Kruisselbrink, Acadia University, Project Coordinator
● Shiva Nourpanah, past research assistant and PhD student (completed August 207), Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University
● Joy Brander, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, MA student
● Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir, Professor of Anthropology, University of Iceland, International Collaborator
Partner Organizations in Nova Scotia
● NS Association of Social Workers
● NS Government and General Employees Union
● Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University
● Center for Organizational Research and Development, Acadia University
Resources
● Jackson, Lois, Sheri Price, Pauline Gardiner Barber, Audrey Kruisselbrink,Michael Leiter, Shiva Nourpanah & Ivy Bourgeault. (2019). “Healthcare workers ‘on the move’:making visible the employment-related geographic mobility of healthcare workers.” Health Sociology Review, 28(3): 277-290.
● Leiter, Michael P., Lois Jackson, Ivy Bourgeault, Sheri Price, Audrey Kruisselbrink, Gardiner Barber Pauline, and Shiva Nourpanah. (2018). “The Relationship of Safety with Burnout for Mobile Health Employees.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15 (7): 1461
● Nourpanah, Shiva, Ivy Bourgeault, Lois Jackson, Sheri Price, Pauline Gardiner Barber and Michael P. Leiter. (2018). “Intersecting Policy Contexts of Employment-Related Geographical Mobility of Healthcare Workers: The Case of Nova Scotia, Canada.” Healthcare Policy, 14 (2): pp. 12-21.
● The often invisible challenges posed by employment-related geographic mobility: A comparative qualitative study of Nova Scotian health workers. Poster presentation to the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research Conference 2016.
● Taking healthcare to patients: Healthcare workers’ experiences of being on the road. Congress 2015 presentation.
● Potential Future Crisis in Health Human Resources in NS? A critical look at key policy documents related to labour shortages and labour mobility in healthcare. Poster presentation to the Canadian Health Workers Conference 2014.
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