Report calls on province to look at nursing problem

MONTREAL (CityNews) – A Quebec report is calling on the government and healthcare system to take a hard look at the nursing profession and update its practices to be able to retain and attract nurses.

This comes as the province sees a labour shortage and many are saying 4,000 nurses are missing from the job in the middle of a fourth wave.

“There’s a lack of recognition of what they do, and it affects valorization of their work,” said Robert Salois, a former Quebec health and welfare commissioner. “It also reflects there’s a lack of mobilization. People quitting their jobs because this is missing.”

In a report, 31 recommendations were made from commissioners on the general state of the nursing profession.
Half of which revolve around the work environment.

“The national guidelines are very important because each center or health center is doing something different than the other,” said Francine Ducharme, a nursing professor at the University of Montreal.

Some of the recommendations for standardizing the work include:

• Introducing a nurse-patient ratio to provide care
• Stabilizing the care teams by avoiding transfers and using employment agencies as much as possible
• Establishing a maximum number of hours of work that can be done per day and per week

“The pandemic was a good thing in a way because it’s good timing. All the weaknesses of the system were ready to be exposed,” said Ducharme.

The last time the nursing profession took a look at its practices was in 1996. Currently, in Quebec, there are 85,000 nurses.

“We have more nurses, more than in B.C. and Ontario. What the nurses said. It’s not a problem of [the] number of nurses, it’s a problem of how they use them. Nursing organization. Many times in healthcare, nurses are asked to do activities that others can do,” said Luc Mathieu, president, Order of Quebec nurses.

Overhaul of the nurses training is recommended within the next five years – by only giving a nurses permit after a university degree – instead of after a college diploma in Quebec. They can practice in a more limited capacity after college until they get their permit.

“The CEGEP program in nursing are good but they are not sufficient. What I mean, there’s domain knowledge not [taught] in CEGEP programs. For example, intensive care.”

Amid the labour shortage and the pandemic, some are hoping these recommendations don’t get shelved and are acted upon.