Hospital shutdowns that began in small communities have now spread to big cities, as provincial healthcare systems strain under devastating nursing shortages.
What happened: Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Moncton have seen major hospitals shut down emergency rooms (for 24 hours in some cases) because they didn’t have enough nurses to treat patients.
- Staffing shortages were exacerbated by the pandemic, but the problem pre-dates COVID: A 2019 survey of Canadian nurses found that 83% of respondents felt their institutions were understaffed.
Why it’s happening: COVID infections and (well-deserved) vacations have contributed to short-term shortages, while burnout and pay grievances across the sector have hollowed out the workforce.
- There were 136,800 job vacancies in the health care sector in the first quarter of 2022 (an all-time high) and a quarter of nurses said they plan on quitting their job in the next three years, per Statistics Canada.
- Filling these vacancies is difficult due to the limited number of spots in nursing programs and a dearth of clinical placements available for students.
Why it matters: The worker shortage creates a vicious cycle: Understaffing makes the job harder, which leads to burnout, which leads to nurses leaving, which leads to more shortages.