Helsinki University Central Hospital hit by nurse shortage

Public health care hopes economic slump will attract nurses from private sector

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If there is one field in Finland in which employees do not need to fear losing their jobs, it is public health care. For instance, every day there is a shortage of more than 350 nursing professionals at the units of the Helsinki University Central Hospital. HUCH has 17 units around the Helsinki region.
      “The labour shortage has been serious for several years, but now it has become even more acute”, says Kirsi Sillanpää, personnel manager of HUCH.
      The labour shortage has had its worst effect on emergency care, intensive care, surgery, and surgical wards, where the daily shortfall is about 200 nurses.
      Because of the labour gap, there is a danger that operations might have to be cancelled.
      “So far, no surgeries have had to be cancelled, because our employees have stretched to the limit”, says Reijo Haapiainen, head of the operative unit of HYKS.
      It is most difficult to get nurses for unscheduled surgery. In January and February, 3,000 of the 12,000 operations performed at that time fell into the category.
      According to Reija Sjöholm, the chair of the HUCH section of the TEHY nurses’ union, overtime work brings in so little pay that it is no longer attractive for employees. There is also a shortage of temp workers.
     
There are hopes that the recession might help the situation somewhat.
      “The fact that things are going badly in the private sector will certainly ease our labour shortage”, Sjöholm observes.
      “For instance, if one of the partners in a family ends up unemployed, and a trained nurse is staying at home, then the nurse might come to work for us”, Haapiainen says.
     
For longer-term help, the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District is looking abroad.
      Next autumn the district is recruiting 20 nurses from the Philippines.
      Fourteen of the Filipino nurses will be working in HUCH operating theatres in different parts of the Helsinki region.
      “The number of people being recruited is small, and it will not solve our labour shortage. However, all means need to be taken into use”, Sillanpää says.
      She notes that by 2020, around 3,000 of the nurses at the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District will retire.
      All of the foreign nurses being recruited for work in Finland are trained nurses, and have experience in working abroad.
      The Finnish language will be the biggest problem. When they arrive in Finland, the nurses will have studied Finnish for nine months.
     
The Philippines deliberately trains more nurses than it has nursing jobs available for.
      The country’s second language is English, and ten per cent of the country’s GDP comprises money sent home by citizens working abroad.
     
TEHY sees a number of problems in recruiting nurses from abroad. The union feels that there is a danger that Western countries will deprive local hospitals of native labour, and that the lack of language skills could endanger patient safety in Finland.
      Sillanpää insists that the language issue will be a special focus of attention.
      The nurses will also be required to pass a local nursing examination.
      Haapainen, who is a surgeon himself, notes that already now broken English is often the language spoken during surgical procedures.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hospitals fear nurse shortage may make treatment guarantee impossible to implement (8.9.2004)
  Filipino nurses in Finland for the long haul (26.4.2008)
  Everyone who wants to go to Finland, raise your hands (20.1.2008)

Links:
  Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS)
  Helsinki University Central Hospital (Wikipedia)

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