Greenland’s largest hospital relies on Danish staff to fill chronic nursing shortages
Thursday 2nd July 2026 on 15:01 in
Denmark
Greenland’s largest hospital will be short nine nurses next week, according to Anne Birgitte Jensen, the 70-year-old head nurse on the medical ward at Queen Ingrid’s Hospital in Nuuk.
Jensen, who has lived in Greenland for 40 years and led the ward for 26, said persistent shortages are a defining condition of the job. The 32-bed unit treats children and adults with heart and lung diseases, as well as cancer patients awaiting diagnosis.
The ward has 24 full-time nursing positions, but last year 121 different nurses passed through them—meaning the average nurse stayed only two and a half months. The turnover fuels errors and patient unease, Jensen acknowledged.
“Even when we try to organise our way out of it, mistakes happen,” she said. “Some nurses don’t know how we do things here in Greenland, and that can make patients feel unsafe.”
To ease the strain, Greenland’s health service recently struck a staffing agreement with Danish Regions, pairing Greenlandic wards directly with Danish hospital departments. Under the deal, Danish doctors and nurses will voluntarily rotate into full-time Greenlandic posts, with the same personnel returning repeatedly.
“It will at least bring some stability,” Jensen said, though she questions whether a single Danish ward can supply enough staff to fill a full Greenlandic position, typically for three-month stints.
She values the temporary nurses who come through agencies or short-term contracts, but the constant turnover takes a toll. “You invest a lot of energy building relationships with colleagues, and then they leave again,” she said. “When we get repeat staff, you can see the relief on the faces of the permanent team—here’s someone who knows us and the ward.”
At a meeting with other department heads, Jensen reported both an excess of patients for available beds and the nine-nurse shortfall. Afterward, she remained cautiously optimistic, noting that other wards had offered to help plug the gaps. “It looks manageable,” she said. “We’ve also closed beds to match our resources.”