Nurse Shortage In Canada

The business model acquired by the hospitals has led to the fragmentation of health care. The shrinking budgets of hospitals and a profit motive preceded to reduction of the number of nurses employed by direct lay-offs, converted many jobs to part time and adopted policies to reduce costs. So, as the demand for nurses has not changed, patient acuity has increased resulting in greater work place demand, paperwork, turnover, overtime and burnout (Reineck and Furino, 2005); The increasing exhaustion and burnout increased nurses’ frustration, which led many nurses to exit the profession. The problem of shortage of nurses is not only confined to Canada but also is global. World Health Organization (2006) estimates that the global shortage of health
CNA predicts that this shortage will rise to approximately 60,000 by the year 2022 (CNA, 2013). The shortage in nurses’ workforce directly affects the population and health care system as nurses play an unique role in maintaining a high-quality health care system and meeting the health needs of the population. Also, the public’s confidence in Canadian health care system rests on maintaining its confidence in health providers; and a shortage in nurses has a potential impact on the quality of care, which directly affects on this confidence (Advisory committee on health human resources, 2000). So, the increasing health needs of the population require the availability of an effective, productive and sustainable health workforce (Price et al, 2013). One-third of the entire Canadian healthcare workforce consists of regulated nursing profession and because of the high number of nurses in the system, it has been suggested that “as nurses goes, so goes the rest of the system” (CNAC, 2002). Hence, Canada’s policy makers, decision makers, educational organizations, professional associations and or colleges, employers and others can start addressing the shortage of RNs right now. So, this paper proposes that healthcare delivery system requires the enhancement of effective, productive and sustainable nursing workforce to address the global issue of nursing shortage; moreover, this paper will argue that the failure to focus on retention of nurses is a critical factor contributing to the nurses’