A toolkit to repair Canada's nursing shortage?

A new “toolkit” launched recently by the federal government could help employers—including physicians—and health system administrators improve conditions for nurses so they stay longer in their workplaces and in the profession.The 75-page resource was designed to improve the working lives of Canadian nurses across the country. It lays out strategic actions in eight core areas: leadership, work balance and flexibility, mental health and wellness, professional development, administrative burden, management and communication, clinical governance and safe staffing.“Pressure on the nursing workforce has been building over time due to long-standing health systems issues such as an aging and growing population, lack of appropriate health workforce data, and inadequate recruitment and retention of healthcare providers,” wrote the authors of Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada. “The growing demand for care is outpacing the supply of available nurses, putting pressure on health systems to rapidly address care gaps across federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions.”Statistics support this observation. A July 2023 Statistics Canada report cited a 24% increase in job vacancies for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year. In a 2021 StatsCan survey of healthcare workers, just over a third of nurses said they planned to stay in their current job for less than three years.Read: B.C. announces minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, $237M to recruit and retain staffDeveloped under the leadership of the country’s Chief Nursing Officer with input from the nursing community, the toolkit presents retention strategies in each of the eight core areas, along with potential resources. For example, the leadership section highlights ways to enhance or develop leadership training programs and identifies regulatory bodies, managers and other leaders as the key parties responsible for making this happen.In work balance and flexibility, one initiative to advance nurses through digital transformation outlines supporting actions such as creating a nursing informatics role or team and conducting a thorough assessment of the technology needs of nurses.The toolkit is meant to address retention of nurses at various stages of their career and across the various roles. It also “spans the continuum of care from acute care hospitals to community, public health and long-term care, including both rural and remote settings.”The toolkit authors noted that there are many initiatives underway across the country to improve retention of nurses. The toolkit, they wrote, "provides a framework that can be utilized as a key resource for employers and organizations to enhance the current working conditions of nurses and outlines many of the initiatives."Read: Doctors can use their platform to help nurses too, says Canada's top nurse

A toolkit to repair Canada's nursing shortage?

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics