‘Alarming trend’: More nurses leaving public healthcare, Canada’s nurses unions launch study
Posted September 14, 2023 7:53 pm.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CNFU) is looking into what they call an “alarming trend” and how it affects the public healthcare system by launching a study.
It says this is due to nurses nationwide leaving permanent positions, benefits, and even their pensions to work for private agencies.
“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen an influx of agency nurses, and nurses leaving permanent jobs in cities and towns all across Canada, to go work for an agency. Because one: there’s flexibility, you can say no. And two: the salary is double — triple the hourly rate that you’re currently making,” CNFU president Linda Silas told CityNews.
While the flexibility and higher pay may be appealing at first, she says it’s not beneficial in the long term, and it needs addressing.
“We have to make our working conditions satisfying to our nurses, so they stay … committed in your community. Our education system is helping educate these nurses. We need them in all our communities,” she said.
“And employers should be working with their unions to improve the working condition, improve the workload so they stay as permanent employees.”
She says with hospital spending on agency nurses increasing by as much as 550 per cent, it’s critical to understand how private staffing agencies affect the broader picture of our public healthcare system.
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Silas says we can’t continue to slap band-aids on gaping wounds and need to follow proven, sustainable pathways that retain, recruit, and return nurses back to the public sector.
“There is no way an employer can continue on paying agency nurses and having no commitment at all,” Silas explained.
“For the nurses themselves, our message is this is not going to last. You’re not accumulating any security, vacation, pension plan, etc. And why aren’t we all working together to improve your working conditions and give you work-life balance?”
The CNFU is partnering with Queen’s University on a research agreement and will be led by Dr. Joan Almost, who is a registered nurse and professor.
The areas of focus will be on the number of private nursing agencies in Canada, the number of agency nurses being used, the average rate of pay, the total dollars spent by provincial and territorial governments on agency nurses, the total hours worked by agency nurses, and where and how agency nurses are being used.
In the coming months, the CFNU will publish a report based on the study’s findings with key policy recommendations for provincial, territorial, and federal governments.
-With files from Lisa Grant
