Health care workers in Canada are working under challenging conditions. The country’s health care system is understaffed, creating more pressure on people working in it. Many health care workers leave their jobs, and the rest plan to go because of poor work conditions.
The understaffed health care system needs immediate help to handle the nurse shortage issue. According to Linda Silas, the urgency of action is long due. Ms. Silas is the President of the Canadian Federation of Nurse Union (CFNU). She showed her concern for the understaffed health care system and said, “We have to fix the workplace in our health care system right now; it’s an urgent issue.” “Now Canadians can’t get their surgeries, can’t get their specialized treatments, we have ERs closing across the country, and the big reason is that we don’t have enough for nurses,” she adds further.
At present, the health care sector of Canada has reached an alarming situation. The shortage of nurses has affected all the providences of Canada. Linda Silas said that action was required on the nurses’ shortage in Canada before the pandemic started, and the situation worsened after it. She expressed her views on the nurse shortage in Canada while talking with CTV.
Canadian Union of Public Employees conducted a survey. The result says that 87% of hospital registered nurses considered quitting their job due to poor work conditions and ill behavior from the patients’ families. For your reference, at present, 2,600 registered nurses are working.
The country has had a shortage of health staff for a long time, but the pandemic has made it challenging to handle. Many workers have left their job due to over workload. According to Silas, the staff could not able to offer quality care to patients due to overwork. She said, “We cannot let 20 percent of our workforce retire early. We cannot let one in two nurses leave; our System will completely collapse”,
Statistic Canada also reported an all-time high requirement of staff in the health care sector in June. In the first quarter of 2022, the sector had 136,800 vacancies which is 91% higher than the first quarter of last year. Moreover, 50% of nurses have claimed that their mental health worsens compared to pre-pandemic time. Canadian Nurse Association (CNA) is expected to get some help from Canada’s premiers at the Council of the Federation meeting. Silas has also released a statement after attending the meeting. The official statement is available on the Council of the Federation’s website. She said that Canada’s premiers would gather at a “critical” moment for the nation’s health care system. To warn the authorities about the outcome of the understaffed health care system, she said, “It’s time for federal, provincial and territorial governments to listen to frontline nurses and work with us on urgent solutions. We have no time to waste”.
