QUEBEC (ASRN.ORG) - Health Minister Philippe Couillard announced that Quebec nurses that work in stressful jobs, such as emergency rooms or Intensive Care Units
will get bonuses of up to 10% of their salaries, but only until the end of summer.

He said a "working group" would address the long-term problem of the nursing shortage in the fall.

Couillard said the province will spend more than $6 million on the bonuses, and they could add $100 a week to a nurse's pay.

Couillard is hoping it will improve the working environment in those units.

"If you have a team at the ICU, and there's always a turnover of nurses being tired and deciding to go work in other less-demanding areas of the hospital, then you create a constant environment of instability." he said.

Many consider the bonus to the nurses in the 40+ hospitals in the Providence as "too little, too late."

However, Couillard said that the working group would review how "effective" the bonuses have been in the fall.

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