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The threat of Ontario’s diminishing healthcare system · Kvetch & Release

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  New survey out revealing that Ontario's Registered Practical nurses are facing unsustainable conditions amid on
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  going staffing shortages. The Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario, also known as
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  we AREPN, the professional voice of rpns across the province, released these findings
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  to from their annual survey titled the State of Nursing in Ontario, A twenty
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  twenty four review. Joining me right now to discuss is the chief strategy officer
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  of we AREP and Tiff Blair. How are you today? I'm great,
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  Thanks for having me, Thank you so much for joining me here. So
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  right off the bat, what are some of the threats of the our healthcare
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  system right now that we're facing. Yeah, well, I think we've been
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  doing this survey for the last four years since the pandemic, just to see
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  sort of the state of healthcare in the state of nursing in particular. So
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  this year our findings really show that the nursing shortage is continuing to have an
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  impact on both nurses and patients. We're seeing nearly half of urpns considering leaving
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  the profession. We're seeing seventy eight percent talking about how they are being directly
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  impacted by the nursing shortage and ninety one percent of them seeing that that's having
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  an impact on the quality of care that they're able to provide for patients.
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  And we're also seeing the mental tool that it's taking on those nurses themselves.
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  So, you know, I think that there have been some improvements in some
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  areas, but there's still a lot of work to do to get back to
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  optimal levels. Those are some pretty staggering statistics there. Why is it that
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  fifty percent are thinking of leaving the industry? So, I think it's a
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  few different things. So certainly one the nature of the workload and how it's
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  just grown over the last number of years. I think, you know,
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  obviously nursing has never been a stress free profession, but I think since the
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  pandemic, it's really gotten to a point that we're asking nurses to work beyond
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  what's reasonable, and then I think that's taking a toll on them personally.
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  I think we hear from a lot of nurses that you know, go into
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  work wanting to provide the best care possible to their patients. Obviously that's why
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  they got into the profession, and then leaving at the end of the day
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  feeling like a failure because they weren't able to provide the care that they know
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  that their patients or residents deserve. And I think you get to a certain
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  point where it really takes the toll, a personal toll. I think the
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  other thing, particularly for urpns, there's a financial consideration as well. So
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  urpens have historically based quite a bit of wage compression, meaning that you know,
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  compared to some of their registered nurse colleagues, they're paid quite a bit
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  less. So we've seen in the last number of years, but I think
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  a number of them have found that, you know, the pressure is just
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  too much given how they're compensated. So how has it been I suppose since
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  COVID hit, like, has there been a significant loss already of rpns from
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  the system. Yeah, so I would when we look at the College of
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  Nurses, they keep track of how many nurses are registered in the province,
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  and we used to have the RPN category used to be growing year over year,
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  and this year we're actually seeing about five hundred less rpns registered in the
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  province compared to this time last year. At a time when we know that
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  we need more of these nurses. So I think there has been, you
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  know, efforts to recruit more nurses, there have been new spaces opened in
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  schools, but I think we're seeing the tool of really those people choosing to
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  leave the profession and the impact that it's having on the nursing workforce. So
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  its like it's overly more concerning than that with one and two considering leaving that
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  that's a problem of itself, but at a time when you're already losing like
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  that's it's a really staggering figure. Yeah, for sure. I mean we've
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  seen so as I mentioned, we've been doing these surveys for the last number
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  of years. Last year we saw two thirds considering leaving, so now that
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  number is one and two. So I mean, I think that there has
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  been some modest improvement and maybe some conditions are changing which are making some nurses
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  consider staying in the profession, but there's certainly a lot more that we need
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  to be doing to both continue to recruit more nurses but also make sure that
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  those experienced nurses who have that knowledge and expertise are staying in the system.
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  So, you know, we talk here often with people in the healthcare sector
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  on am eight hundred CKLW. And one word that I've had described to me
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  often of the situation at hand is it's triage because of the staffing shortages,
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  because of the build up that occurred from COVID, because of the lack of
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  access, And I guess I just I would love to get your perspective on
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  just that. Is it still like a triage based system. I say this
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  selfishly because I've been sitting with a broken wrist for the better part of the
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  past three years and I still can't get to see a specialist. Yeah,
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  I think that's an accurate description of the situation. I mean, I think
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  that we hear a lot from our members about you know, the workload is
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  just so much that you're trying to provide the necessary care, not necessarily the
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  best care that you can, just because you're trying to ensure that everyone gets
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  a certain standard of care to you know, provide the basic needs, but
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  not the optimal type of care that you're able that you would ideally provide under
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  more optimal circumstances. It's a tough situation. So, I mean, there's
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  obviously never a silver bullet that can address everything. But when you look at
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  this and you assess it. What would be some of the remedies that you
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  would prescribe. Yeah, I think there are a few things that, you
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  know, we're calling for government to take action on. So one is the
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  idea of introducing nurse to patient ratios and sort of having that legislated. So
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  there are certain other jurisdictions like BC in Australia that have done that and basically
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  said what a minimum nurse to patient standard should be in different environments. I
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  think that would be something that would be a key important step to help address
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  sort of the normalization of understaffing what we're seeing now. I'd say another thing
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  would be around the wage issue that I mentioned before. So there have been
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  some minor improvement since Bill one twenty four was squashed last year. You know,
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  unions have been able to negotiate improved wages for rpns and some sectors like
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  hospitals, but there's a lot of work environments like long term care, home
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  and community care where wages are falling behind. So people, you know,
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  it's really hard to recruit nurses to those areas because when they're comparing you know,
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  I could be making thirty four dollars an hour in a hospital or I
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  could be making twenty two dollars in home care and thinking about, you know,
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  the impact on their finances. It's harder to recruit people to those sort
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  of more historically underpaid areas. And then I think, you know, streamlining
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  educational opportunities would be a third thing I highlight there as you mentioned more spaces,
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  spaces in nursing programs right right now, it's quite difficult to access those,
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  and I think growing that pool of nursing educational opportunities is a key way
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  that we can help grow the nursing population when they need it. Well,
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  it's something that impacts all of us in one way or another. We're going
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  to keep our eyes on this one. I want to thank you so much,
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  Tiff for joining me to talk about this. Oh, thanks so much
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  for having me. Really appreciate it. Have a great weekend. Tiff Blair
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  is the chief strategy Officer of RPN. We'll get to your