A group of newly hired nurses from the Philippines has helped the Drew Nursing Home get back to full capacity.
Director Linda Shannon says that five or six years ago, the nursing home had empty beds it could not fill due to staff shortages. “We wanted to open our beds help with the hospital overflow,” says Shannon, referring to problems with New Brunswick hospitals housing high numbers of ‘alternative level of care’ patients that are waiting for nursing home beds. “And so we went to the Philippines and hired 20 people,” says Shannon.
A recruiting mission in 2023 resulted in 20 new hires, and another 10 were hired in 2024. So far, 25 of those new nurses made it to Sackville, with another five due to arrive in August and September.
Charie May Ili is one of the nurses who has helped open up more beds at the Drew. She’s worked in hospitals in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, and decided to get her license to work in Canada. Ili says she didn’t know much about New Brunswick before the mission came to the Philippines. “I was hesitant,” says Ili, “but after thinking it through, I realized that maybe it’s the opportunity that I’ve been waiting for.”
After about 4 months of working as a resident attendant at the Drew, Ili scored a registered nurse (RN) position at the home. Only about 20% of Drew nursing staff are RNs, with most working as resident attendants, and some as licensed practical nurses.
Ili and her husband are in New Brunswick on work visas, but have applied to become permanent residents. Her husband has found work in Amherst, but is still looking for something in IT, his chosen field. Ili says the couple is happy to live in a small town, and after arriving in November of 2024, are still finding lots to explore.
Whether or not the couple chooses to stay in Sackville in the long term is anyone’s guess, but it’s something that Thrive NB co-founder Carol Chapman is hoping she can influence.
Chapman and Thrive NB are hired by the Drew, with costs covered by the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, to help settle the new contingent of nursing staff.
When it comes to new immigrants, “New Brunswick itself had the second lowest retention in the country,” says Chapmen. “So we became a province, and this is really historical, where we were fairly easy to get into, but we were also fairly easy to leave.”
Chapman says that meant employers who were investing in international recruitment and training would sometimes lose their employees to bigger cities that offered stronger immigrant networks and diaspora communities.
“They would bring people in and work really hard,” says Chapman, “and then, because they don’t have their communities here, and they didn’t have, you know, a synergy, and they would leave.”
Thrive NB works to help establish new immigrants in their communities. Ili recalls Chapman meeting her and her husband when they arrive in New Brunswick. “She helped us in everything that we need to do,” says Ili, be that drives for errands, help shopping for essentials like SIM cards and groceries, and crucially, winter clothes. “We came here in November,” recalls Ili with a shiver. Chapman also helped the couple open bank accounts and get social insurance numbers.
Housing was another big challenge. When they first arrived in Sackville, Ili and her husband stayed in an apartment at the Drew, one of several set aside to help with the international recruitment program.
“Back before we went on our first mission, we had to make a decision of where the new recruits would live when they came immediately,” says Shannon. “We had a committee look at different options, and we came to the conclusion that our best option was to use one of our cottages.”
A Drew cottage consists of four apartments, usually rented to relatively independent seniors, but the administration decided to leave one building vacant as people moved out, as use it to temporarily house new nurses. “We had to look at the pros and the cons,” says Shannon. “Sure, there was four less apartments for seniors, but also we were able to fill all our beds. So bringing in 20 clients from the community or the hospital was more of a help.”
Now that the largest group of newly immigrated nurses have moved on to their own homes, the Drew has returned two of the four apartments to seniors residences, and will keep two free for the next group of nurses coming in August and September.
Ili and her husband are settled in their own apartment in Sackville, and are getting help and support from another source: St Vincents Catholic Church. Ili and many of the new Filipino staff are Catholic, and the church has filled a role in providing community, and also helping with practical needs of setting up households from scratch.
“We are really grateful that the church supports us,” says Ili. “They provided us like bed frames, mattresses, pots, utensils, sofas and many more things… We are very thankful for the people who donated those things to the church,” she says. “We really feel welcome.”
Chapman says the through her work at Thrive NB, she’s seen a lot of generosity from New Brunswick residents. “That, to me, is building the community,” says Chapman. “That’s when [new immigrants] don’t leave because they realize people have gotten behind them very quickly and very openly to say, ‘We want you to stay.’”
There are, of course, challenges for Ili and her fellow new recruits. She says that the snow and freezing temperatures shortly after she first arrived were the first big hurdle. But there’s also communication and adjustments to a different day to day culture.
“We have the skills and the experience” to deliver care, says Ili, “but you know, it’s the learning of different standards, different day to day workflow,” that is more challenging. Sometimes hearing English in a different accent can be a challenge for residents. Ili says there’s an adjustment process for everyone, including Drew residents and her fellow workers. “I think they are getting used to it,” says Ili. “It’s a process. We are still new, and we are ready to, you know, give our best to do the work.”
