(Montreal) The number of new nursing licenses issued in Quebec has fallen for the third year in a row, reaching its lowest level in 10 years, as the province struggles to fill positions at its health care facilities.
Published yesterday at 6:19 p.m.
Thomas MacDonald The Canadian Press
The Order of Nurses of Quebec says it issued 2,864 licenses between April 2022 and March 2023. In comparison, a year earlier, 3,565 new permits were registered in the same 12-month period, a 20% increase. The warrant had issued 3,629 in the previous 12 months and 4,183 in 2019-2020.
Nevertheless, the professional association recorded an increase in its total membership – from 79,748 in March 2022 to 83,418 a year later – continuing its strong upward trend. But only 92.6% of its members worked in Quebec, the lowest proportion in the last decade.
In a news release Thursday, the organization also noted a 20 percent increase in the number of specialty nurses, nurses with advanced degrees who exercise additional authority, including prescribing treatments. As of March 2023, there were 1,314 nurses in Quebec, compared to 1,097 in 2022 and 842 in 2021. The number has increased by 134% since 2019.
The Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ), which represents the majority of nurses in Quebec, called the regulation's decline in the issuance of authorizations “very worrying” in the current context.
“We need to significantly improve the working conditions of health professionals in order to attract them to the public network,” the union wrote in an email.
“Nurses are an extremely valuable resource but the Government is not prioritizing them. This is very disappointing and frustrating for the members of the FIQ who are keeping the healthcare network at arm's length and for the patients. »
Unlike several teaching unions, FIQ has not yet reached a proposed agreement with the government. However, on December 19, she received the appointment of an arbitrator from the Ministry of Labor.
Quebec's workforce data released Thursday comes amid difficult negotiations between the government and the province's largest nurses' union, as well as health care facilities struggling with staff shortages.
According to Quebec's statistics agency, nursing was one of the most labor-intensive occupations in the third quarter of 2023, with more than 10,400 vacancies for registered nurses and trained psychiatric nurses.
At the same time, waiting lists in the healthcare system and waiting times in emergency rooms have continued to rise in recent years. In Quebec, 164,168 people were waiting for non-cardiac surgery as of early December 2023, up from 129,371 in December 2020.
In emergency departments, the average seven-day wait to see a doctor after triage was 3.14 hours on January 8, 2024, compared to 1.82 hours two years earlier.
The professional association's report does not indicate possible reasons for the decline in the number of new nursing licenses, and the organization declined to provide further details when contacted by The Canadian Press on Friday.
The order said in an email that it is developing an action plan with the Quebec government to increase the number of qualified nurses in the province by 2024, but declined to provide further details. However, the order “hopes” that the number of new permits will increase in the coming year.
Quebec's Health Ministry did not respond to a request for comment Friday
In an interview, Tim Guest, CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association, said he didn't know why Quebec was issuing fewer licenses. But he admitted the decline was not surprising given the nationwide shortage of nurses, which is caused by what he described as dissatisfaction with working conditions in the profession, such as an excessive number of nurses. “Overtime”.
Mr Guest said he was unaware of similar declines in other provinces, but had heard of nursing schools having difficulty recruiting students.