For the second time this week, young nurses in Halifax have gone public with their plans to look for work elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Amanda Parsons told CTV News she is frustrated with the Nova Scotia government after the nurses’ strike, the introduction of essential services legislation and the loss of the graduate tax rebate.

Parsons said she feels the provincial government doesn’t appreciate her services so she would be applying for a job in Newfoundland.

Now, nurses Caitlynne Baker and Jeanine MacDonald, who work on the general and vascular surgery floor of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre Infirmary site, say they are exploring employment opportunities in the U.S.

“I’ve heard a lot of young nurses talking about working elsewhere. No one wants to be here anymore,” says Baker.

“I went to Memorial University and I want to come home to work because this is where my friends and my family are, but the past year, things have just gotten so much worse that I’m willing to give up all of that for my working conditions. It’s miserable.”

Baker and MacDonald say it’s not uncommon to have one nurse per six or seven patients.

“And if you have one acutely ill patient in the bunch and you have to take over that patient, then what happens to the other ones?” asks MacDonald.

“To not have time to hold your patient’s hand when they are upset is devastating,” says MacDonald.

Last week, the Nova Scotia government passed essential services legislation, forcing Capital Health nurses back to work after a one-day strike.

The immediate health-care crisis was averted but now Capital Health says a long-term crisis may be looming.

Almost 29 per cent of the province’s nurses are aged 55 or older and another 30 per cent are between the ages of 45 and 54, which means three out of every five nurses in Nova Scotia are eligible to retire right now, or will be eligible over the next 10 years.

“Those numbers are pretty scary so we’ve looked at what are the things that we have to do differently to equip a healthy workforce for the future,” says Kathy MacNeil, vice-president of people at Capital Health.

Nova Scotia Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine says he will be examining the issues faced by nurses, but didn’t offer any specifics.

“I certainly as minister will address working conditions if that’s what would cause them to move to another province, the U.S. or beyond,” says Glavine.

Nurse-to-patient ratios remain the main obstacle to a new contract. McNeil says, if Capital Health hired all 365 nurses graduating in Nova Scotia this year, it wouldn’t fix an impending nursing shortage.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jayson Baxter