Challenges with representation and diversity within the nursing profession continue to be magnified during the COVID-19 pandemic whereby underserved populations are disproportionately impacted for example, racialized populations and populations in rural and remote regions have higher morbidity and mortality rates from COVID-19 ( Webb Hooper et al. Critically low nurse staffing levels are seen across the country, most notably in acute service areas, resulting in bed and service closures.
Available evidence indicates nurses are leaving their positions or intending to leave the profession entirely post-pandemic.
This could result in a mass departure of nurses from the profession if we fail to look for new solutions now. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created such a substantial increase in workload and chronic stress that we are at a tipping point of systemic burnout. High workload and stress are common themes associated with nursing profession and healthcare work in general. This has prompted our examination of what policy responses are urgently needed to support and retain our vital nursing resource moving forward. In particular, the vulnerabilities, ineffectiveness and transient nature of policies and solutions of the past in addressing long-standing issues of nursing shortages in Canada have come to light during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a Canadian Medical Association Journal news article published in 2021 ( Varner 2021), health job vacancies in Canada were at a record high of 100,300-up 56.9% from 2019 and with Canadian hospitals having the highest vacancy rate of any sector. The pandemic has shed light on many vulnerabilities within the Canadian healthcare system. The response of nurses to the pandemic has been tremendous, with nurses taking on increased workloads, changing roles as necessary, and coming out of retirement to navigate an ever-changing and polarizing landscape. Health workforce data from 2020 indicates that there are upwards of 448,000 nurses across four roles: registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses/registered practical nurses, and nurse practitioners (Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) 2021b, 2021a). Nurses represent the highest proportion of healthcare workers globally and play an instrumental role in healthcare which has been heightened in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. The findings and recommendations from this policy brief are meant to inform a national and sustained focus on retention and recruitment efforts in Canada. These findings were integrated with expert perspectives from national nursing leaders involved in guiding the review to arrive at recommendations and actions that are presented in this policy brief. Findings from the review have identified longstanding and COVID-specific impacts, gaps, and opportunities to strengthen the nursing workforce. The review methods included a trend analysis of peer-reviewed articles, a jurisdictional scan of policies and strategies, analyses of published surveys and interviews of nurses in Canada, and a targeted case study from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. A review sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada investigated the impact of the pandemic on the nursing workforce in Canada to inform planning and implementation of sustainable nursing workforce strategies. The pandemic has shed light on multiple vulnerabilities that have impacted the nursing workforce including critical levels of staffing shortages in Canada. Nurses represent the highest proportion of healthcare workers globally and have played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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