Nursing Shortage in Ontario Has the Potential

¶ … nursing shortage in Ontario has the potential to have a catastrophic impact both on the health of patients and the health of nurses. Nurses as a whole are committed to providing excellent care and upholding the standards of their profession. However, when they are operating in facilities that are chronically understaffed, achieving this goal can seem impossible. Nurses are forced to oversee insupportably high patient loads and to work long hours, literally doing the work of two people with one body.

Despite this fact, "almost 90 per cent (89%) of patients in Ontario rated their nursing care as excellent or good is the high cost that nurses often pay to provide that care" (MacKinnon 2001). But as nurses retire and age out of the profession and are not replaced by new nurses, the shortage will grow even more critical. While nursing shortages are common in the United States as well, Canada faces a particular challenge.

"Health experts warn Canada could face a repeat of the 1990s, when health-care cuts by the provinces drove as many as 27,000 nurses to the U.S. alone to look for work" (Spencer 2010). The United States has proven particularly attractive because of the amenities offered to nurses such as sign-in bonuses and free higher education (Spencer 2010). Ontario has the second-worst nurse-patient ratios in Canada and "spends close to $134 million a year in overtime hours, and close to $50.5 million in clearly related sick time" (MacKinnon 2001).

This creates a vicious cycle: the more nurses are forced to overwork and to take care of more patients than they can handle, the more nurses decide to leave the profession. Even though Ontario patients have praised nursing care, there have still been patient complaints about understaffing, which can lead to more frequent readmission because patients are not appropriately monitored. "Almost one-third of patients complained that their call buttons were not answered promptly" (MacKinnon 2001). Patient satisfaction with nurse's efforts should not make nursing organizations complacent about the shortage.

There have been efforts by the government to address the problem. In 2004, Ontario hospitals received additional $50 million "used to create full-time positions and enhance working conditions for nurses. They will help purchase new equipment that improves the safety of nurses and patients, promote professional development and support roles such as nursing educators and nursing managers" (Better working conditions, 2004, Ontario). However, the province still continues to struggle with the consequences of the shortage because the problem of nurses leaving Ontario has not been addressed.

According to the RNAO's own report: "Ontario is losing RNs in many ways; they are leaving Ontario to work elsewhere (6,336 of those who retain Ontario registration alone; we do not know how many others left without retaining registration here)" (Nursing shortage, 2006, RNAO Knowledge Depot). Nurses must be given additional incentives to stay within the province.

A full-scale program containing guarantees of employment for the first two years of graduation, government-supported sign-in bonuses, and additional funding for education for nurses, including individuals who wish to transition from their existing careers to nursing is essential. Although the nursing shortage is epidemic in all of Canada and North America, Ontario will continue to be particularly hard-hit unless drastic measures are taken to make the area more attractive to new nurses. Hospitals within the province must take an equally aggressive attitude towards recruiting recently-graduated nurses as their American counterparts.

Focusing on nurses who have just graduated is particularly.