Our health care system hinges on the well-being of our nurses and health care workers. They are the backbone of the system in Canada. If we continue to overlook their working conditions, we risk not only their welfare but also the quality of care our system provides. There have been countless stories in the news where health care workers are stretched so thin that it is humanly impossible for them to provide attentive care we all rely on. It’s not just about longer wait times; it’s about the quality of care in our health care system taking a nosedive, leaving patients feeling neglected when they need support the most. If we fail to address these working conditions, we risk a mass exodus from the nursing profession, exacerbating the current shortages and putting patient care at risk.
Canada’s nurses have handed the federal government steps it can take in the next federal budget to solve the health care crisis by improving working conditions for its workers.
Health Canada recently released its Nursing Retention Toolkit, which would help improve working conditions and educational support to retain and recruit more nurses into the field. The federal government needs to continue supporting the provinces and territories to put the toolkit into practice.
Mental health challenges are a major factor driving nurses and health care workers out of their professions. A cognitive behavioural therapy program tailored to nurses would provide them with help they need to navigate challenging times on the job.
Nurses need a break from endless overtime. In the short term, fatigue impairs cognitive and physical abilities, and it also poses long-term health issues like heart disease and diabetes for the nurses. Mandating safe hours of work would protect the health of our nurses and the quality of care they can deliver.
The risk of safety incidents increases exponentially after the eighth consecutive hour of work a nurse works. By the twelfth hour, the risk of incidents doubles, and by the sixteenth hour, it can be as high as threefold, according to a recent report by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
For-profit health care staffing agencies charge up to six times the hourly rate of a regular nurse, pushing health care budgets to the brink. By reducing our reliance on agency nurses, we can free up funding to invest in retaining and hiring more nurses inside our public health care system.
A tax benefit for nurses would encourage them to stay on the job and rejoin the workforce, while also recognizing their immense contribution to the health care system.
Nursing students across the country are excited to start their careers, but they're also anxious about walking into a difficult situation.
See the latest stories on how poor staffing levels are harming our public health care system.
During the pandemic, governments turned to private firms who sent staff from across the country at higher hourly rates. A Globe investigation focusing on one such nursing agency shows those weren’t the only costs borne by taxpayers
The high costs charged by private nursing agencies threaten the public health care system and need to be investigated by Canada’s auditors-general, union leaders say.
Nova Scotia's emergency departments show unplanned closures are up and people are waiting longer for care.
Emergency departments and other hospital services have closed a record number of times in Ontario so far in 2023, according to a new Ontario Health Coalition report being described as “staggering.”
Sustaining Nursing in Canada proposes a set of concrete actionable solutions to help meaningfully solve the health care staffing crisis.
This report details how governments’ poor planning and failure to address the systemic challenges facing nurses created today’s crisis and the impact on nurses, patients and the health system.
Nurses are at the heart of the solutions recommended in this report:
