“You’re on your own.”

That’s the hard reality for nurses working in the territory’s communities, according to Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU) president Steve Geick, who had worked as a community nurse himself for 15 years.

“When it comes to the delivery of health care or first responders, you never see just one paramedic driving an ambulance, or one RCMP officer, or one firefighter going out to extinguish a fire....

“It’s just not heard of.”

Last week, Geick wrote an open letter to Health Minister Mike Nixon. Published in Friday’s Star, the letter urged him to “get out from behind his desk” and address some of the hardships occurring in the area of community nursing.

Geick told the Star Friday his letter marked the first time the issue has been approached in such a way – perhaps a testament to a long battle against a staffing issue that has yet to be won.

The majority of Yukon communities are meant to have two full-time registered nurses employed – both on call 24 hours every day.

There are some exceptions, such as Dawson City, which has five nurses on staff, with one on call 24 hours each day. Or Destruction Bay and Beaver Creek, both with just one nurse on duty and on-call.

Even though those numbers are what’s written on the Department of Health and Social Services’ website, it’s not how many are actually currently employed.

The numbers of vacant positions is blurry – Nixon, the department and Geick have all previously reported differing numbers.

There has been a posting seeking community nurses on the Yukon government’s job website, with the label indicating it is a posting that will stay “until filled.”

But backing away from specifics, any number of vacant positions in communities that have only two nurses to begin with could have repercussions.

“I would worry less about the exact numbers, and more about the gap that the numbers create,” NDP Health critic Jan Stick said Monday.

“When a nurse has to work alone, she’s alone.”

In Geick’s letter to Nixon, the turnover rate and staffing problems should have the department’s alarm bells ringing, he writes.

“What I say, and the NDP says, is that we have people who are saying they’ve worked 15-20 days by themselves,” Geick said.

“You burn out easily.”

When it comes to taking time off, a nurse working alone would require an auxillary on-call employee (AOC) to be flown in to cover the nurse leaving.

The easy solution, according to Geick, would be to increase the number of nurses in most communities from two to three.

Along with the employees’ union, the Yukon NDP has climbed aboard the issue, raising it in legislature last spring.

Opposition Leader Liz Hanson quoted the Clinical Services Plan from 2014. It references a recommendation that the recruitment and retention of community nurses “continue to be a priority until vacancies have been eliminated to the level where individual responsibilities can be fulfilled within the existing job descriptions.”

In the report, there was a note that nurses were commonly providing non-nursing functions because of limited resources and staffing.

Nixon noted the department had not accepted the report’s recommendations yet, and that “every government department finds that there are vacant positions from time to time.”

Later in the session, Stick asked why support for rural health professionals haven’t been a priority.

Premier Darrell Pasloski responded by telling the assembly how proud he was of the Yukon Party’s vision to make the territory a net financial contributor to Canada.

When Stick raised the issue in legislature yesterday, Nixon admitted the retention of community nurses has been challenging in the past, and continues to be now.

He added that the department has tried to be creative with its recruitment strategies, posting advertisements on job sites, using word-of-mouth and attending job fairs across Canada.

Speaking to Stick later, she told the Star Nixon’s response was not exactly surprising.

“I would like to hear him take it seriously. Today we heard back exactly what we thought we would,” she said.

The NDP released a recent statement that said the Yukon Party approach to recruitment and retention of health professionals is failing miserably.

But Sean Secord, the president of the Yukon Registered Nurses Association (YRNA), told the Star this morning the Yukon typically does not have issues attracting nurses to work in the territory.

“We haven’t felt the brunt of the nursing issue that other jurisdictions have,” he said.

However, the nurses’ association is on board with the need to accommodate staffing, Secord said.

Nixon has previously noted that the department will continue to “work with YRNA on recruitment and retention.”

“We haven’t had a working group per se,” Secord said.

“(But) we’ve made him aware of the problem and I trust that he will continue to work with us and listen to our concerns.”

Nixon declined to be interviewed by the Star for this story.

A cabinet spokesperson said the minister intends to respond to Geick directly about his open letter.

In the meantime, it’s clear the parties involved won’t be letting the issue go anytime soon.

The YEU is gearing up for this winter’s round of bargaining, with about 150 demands from members throughout Yukon government.

“There’s a good majority (of demands) brought forward by community nurses,” Geick said.

Nixon told the house Monday the department is looking forward to try to address the issues during the upcoming round of bargaining.

“We can’t tell the government how many people to employ, but throwing money at the (problem) isn’t fixing anything,” Geick said.

“Right now is the worst I’ve seen it.”

But, Secord said, from the YRNA’s perspective, it is an issue that doesn’t just pertain to unions.

“It needs attention,” he said.