They don't contribute at all. They basically exploit nurses who have been trained in a public system or in a university. The problem with agency nurses is that there is no continuity of care. There is very little accountability when it comes to those nurses, who come and go.
I can personally speak to an experience with agency nurses. My mom was on a rehab unit in central Manitoba and had some very complex medical issues. Every day I would see her, I would see a new nurse there. I just assumed they had a lot of part-time nurses or casuals. I found out that it was an agency nurse every day, so every day I would go in and educate the nurse on some of my mom's issues, like what she preferred to eat if she wasn't eating. Every day I would go and re-educate.
One of the agency nurses told me he was leaving Swan River and going to Gilbert Plains to work a shift the next day, and I finally asked, “Are there not enough shifts here?” He said, “Oh yes, I could work here every day, but we make our money on travel.” That's mileage and travel time. What we see is nurses dropping in from facility to facility and doing one shift. There is absolutely no continuity of care and, as far as I'm concerned, no accountability for the cost of travelling from facility to facility. It is a big problem.