Canada could face an unprecedented nursing shortage within 30 months, when between 13% and 28% of senior nurses will retire, a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates.
Nearly a third (30.3%) of RNs working in Canada are 50 or older, and since most nurses retire between ages 56 and 58, an exodus looms. If RNs work until age 65, Canada will lose about 13% of its nurses by 2006. If they retire at age 55, it will lose 28%.
Many of the losses would be in the long-term-care sector, where about 19% of the RN workforce could retire by 2006.
“The reality of what could happen in just 2-and-a-half years from now was pretty shocking,” said author Linda O'Brien-Pallas of the University of Toronto. “It highlighted the [urgent need] to do something.”
The study predicted that meaningful retention strategies could induce 15 000 nurses to stay on the job. Increasing the number of full-time positions would have a huge effect on retention, says O'Brien-Pallas, because it would reduce the workload of senior nurses.
The most important retention strategy is perhaps the most nebulous. “Nurses need to be shown respect for their value,” says O'Brien-Pallas. She points to the recent SARS epidemic as an example of the way “we are ignored and we are not included in the decision-making.” — Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ