Our primary principal challenge is recruiting nurses in our remote areas. It's not as much of a challenge for nurses who are working in public health. The majority of nurses working in public health are working directly for the first nations. In remote areas the isolation is definitely a factor in recruiting and retaining nurses. The lack of amenities in many of these communities is often an issue. It also offers a lot of other things that attract people in working with a different culture. Working in that expanded role often attracts many nurses. Because of the professional isolation we're trying to look at broadening the interdisciplinary team and having nurse practitioners going in. We have, on average, around a 30% vacancy rate of nurses in remote and isolated communities and then we have to rely on contract agencies to ensure we have the full support of staff.
