“It's like someone told me, 'Forget it, it's your business'”: A prospective nurse's aide sees her application rejected without explanation.

A recent DEP nursing graduate laments being denied a job within her CISSS, without explanation, amid a labor shortage in the health network.

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“All my colleagues returned to the hospital on January 9. I am at home, without income, waiting … When we are looking for nurses, Tanya Olivier, 27, does not understand. They won't tell me why.

She testified reluctantly, fearing she would be “banned” from the network. “But it's like someone telling me, 'Forget it, your business,'” he laments.

After two years of study, the young woman completed her practical nursing course last December. She did her training at Haut-Richelieu Hospital, five minutes from her home, without a problem.

She hoped to become a candidate for the profession of Assistant Nurse (CEPIA) for the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre. But his application was rejected without any explanation.

Depression?

She wonders if she is sidelined by depression in 2020 and sees nothing else that could cover her case. M^me Oliver worked for the same CISSS as a service assistant at the height of the pandemic for five months.

“I waited to recover. Then, I started [des études] I love and I succeeded with flying colors […] They didn't even give me a chance,” he continues.

She believes in being a CEPIA from other CISSSs.

She will be able to take Quebec's adjunct nurse exam next March without a temporary job, but she would have liked to get some field experience first.

If she clears the exam, she will get the right to practise. She may then be hired by a private firm that will send her to fill vacancies within the same CISSS that rejected her, she explains as an example.

“hostile”

His father, Eric Olivier, is not shy. “This is ridiculous […] You find it difficult to hire people, but you fool them,” he fumes.

By email, Martine Lesage of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre writes that she cannot comment for confidentiality reasons. He adds that the CISSS “does not systematically provide reasons for rejection” to candidates, while recognizing “many requirements to be met”.