May 23, 2005
The results of a study of nursing in Canada won't surprise anyone who has used the health-care system in Ottawa: A shortage of nurses means longer waiting times and lower-quality care.
It's just going to get worse unless more money goes into training nurses now. It's time for governments to put money and new ideas into nursing, not into more studies. This study, called Building the Future, was funded by the federal government.
Health care is a mess; nursing is a smaller mess tangled up inside it. Because of the shortage, nurses are working too much overtime. Because of funding instability, many are working on part-time or casual status. These working conditions cause nurses to dislike their jobs, or to leave them.
And nurses are retiring faster than they can be replaced. Even if nursing schools accept more students, there is a shortage of clinical placements, so the students can't get the real-world experience they need.
None of this should be new information to government. It certainly isn't news to Sylvie Lauzon, the director of the school of nursing at the University of Ottawa. She says it's worthwhile to have the data, but the crisis in nursing has been there for anyone to see for years.
The report says 80 per cent of nursing-education programs could take more students, and Ms. Lauzon says there are plenty of interested applicants. (The University of Ottawa is graduating about 150 students this year.) The problem is, the schools don't have the resources they need, even to deal with their current workload.
Full Story:
Many cures for nurse shortage [Ottawa Citizen,Canada]
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