OTTAWA — It’s a hemorrhage in Canada’s health-care system that doesn’t seem to be slowing.
In a new report released this week by public policy think-tank MEI , health-care providers across the country are struggling to retain new nurses — losing 40 nurses under the age of 35 for every 100 who enter the profession.
“Ontario is one of the worst examples,” MEI’s v-p of communications Renaud Brossard told the Toronto Sun .
“Ontario, 10 years ago, was amongst the best performers in the country, with about 22 young nurses leaving for every 100 that started in the field — now it’s roughly 37, 38 young nurses leaving for every 100 starting in the field.”
Encourage them to stay
The study, Brossard said, suggests the problem won’t be solved by simply spending money to train new nurses — but by making changes that encourage nurses to stay in the industry.
“A lot of it has to do with flexibility,” he said.
“When we ask nurses why they’re leaving, a lot of them say it’s the working conditions, and there’s a lot of unsatisfaction around the hours.”
That doesn’t mean new nurses are adverse to working long hours, he said, but issues like involuntary overtime are causing many to leave the profession.
Nursing vacancies in Canada have tripled over five years, from 13,178 in 2018 to 41,716 in 2023.
Flexibility in setting schedules
Brossard pointed to provinces like British Columbia, which ranks among the best at retaining nurses, who offer shift-sharing pools instead of assigning mandatory overtime.
“That way nurses can amongst themselves exchange shifts more easily without having to go through management,” he said. “That added flexibility helped to stop the outflow.”
B.C. has also made it easier for foreign-trained nurses to practice in the province, increasing numbers coming into the profession.
“The harder it is to keep young nurses, the more money that’s going to have to be spent on training new nurses,” he said.
“If our health-care system is unable to keep its young nurses, it means that it’s unable to keep those that are going to become the more experienced nurses of tomorrow.
“There’s a value to experience, and the more young nurses that leave the profession early in their career, the harder it is to create that experience and have our health-care system benefit from that.”
