MONTREAL, Que. – Canadian health-care systems struggle to hold on to their young nurses, reveals a publication released by the Montreal Economic Institute.
“For every 100 nurses we train in the country, 40 are leaving the profession before their 35th birthday,” states Samantha Dagres, a spokesperson for the MEI. “This exodus of young nurses has been worsening for the past decade, contributing to our health care woes.”
By 2030, Canada is expected to suffer a shortage of 117,600 nurses.
The MEI’s study shows that for every 100 Canadian nurses who started working in the field in 2022, 40 nurses below the age of 35 quit. This figure is up 25 per cent from 2013.
Saskatchewan ranked fourth, with 35.4 young nurses leaving for every 100 entering in 2022. This is four per cent lower than in 2013.
The province of British Columbia saw the biggest drop in the number of young nurses seeking greener pastures, going from 46.3 for every 100 new entrants, down to 31.5 over the last decade.
“Despite the fact that Saskatchewan is among the top performers in the country, that nearly one in three young nurses are leaving the profession remains troubling,” added Ms. Dagres. “It is clear that more needs to be done in order to retain nurses in the profession, and decisions that reduce flexibility in the workplace should be discouraged.”
Throughout Canada, nurses below the age of 35 are more likely to leave their current job (or leave the profession altogether) than remain where they are, according to a recent survey from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
Some of the most commonly cited concerns were a lack of control over their work schedules, including mandatory overtime and a lack of shift flexibility as principal sources of workplace stress.
Nurses who expressed a desire to quit their current position were also more likely to express interest in working for an independent nursing agency.
For those desiring better working conditions with more flexibility and better pay, independent agencies are considered a preferable alternative and often a final step before leaving nursing altogether.
“It’s understandable why governments would want to reduce their reliance on nursing agencies, given their costs, but that shouldn’t be done at the expense of patient treatment,” notes Dagres. “If governments want to reduce their reliance on independent staff, they need to work on giving young nurses more flexibility to make working for the health-care system attractive to them once more.”
You can read the MEI’s publication here: https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/note102024_en.pdf
You can find provincial-level data showing changes in the rate at which young nurses are leaving here: https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/appendix_note102024_en.pdf
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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal and Calgary.
