Background
Nursing is the largest group of regulated health professionals in Canada, representing 48.2% of the regulated health workforce. Pressure on the nursing workforce has been building over time due to long-standing health systems issues such as an aging and growing population, lack of appropriate health workforce data, and inadequate recruitment and retention of healthcare providers. The growing demand for care is outpacing the supply of available nurses, putting pressure on health systems to rapidly address care gaps across federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions.
In recognition of the acute nursing shortages across the country and internationally, the Nursing retention toolkit: Improving the working lives of nurses in Canada has been developed to support nursing retention. As a resource created ‘by nurses, for nurses’, the Toolkit draws on the expertise of the nursing community, evidence-based practice, and current lived experiences of front-line nurses.
The Toolkit:
targets various phases of a nursing career and nursing roles including students, new graduates, mid-career, late-career, managers, leaders/executives and educators/faculty;
spans the continuum of care from acute care hospitals to community, public health and long-term care, including both rural and remote settings;
compiles current retention strategies that have been implemented across Canada, which will help to foster knowledge transfer of best practices between provinces and territories; and,
provides employers, organizations, and health system administrators with a retention framework that includes examples of initiatives to bolster new and already existing retention strategies.
Themes and initiatives
The Toolkit focuses on eight core themes that impact a nurses’ day-to-day working life, and provides corresponding initiatives that employers or health authorities can implement to improve nursing retention in Canada. Each of the core themes are underpinned by the values of respect, transparency, anti-racism and anti-oppression, and accountability. The image that follows depicts the eight core themes in a circle surrounded by the underpinning values, all with the goal of supporting nurses in Canada by optimizing their working conditions.
Implementation and next steps
Implementation of retention strategies is fundamental to assist in bolstering the nursing workforce in Canada. There are many initiatives underway across Canada to support nursing retention. The Toolkit provides a framework that can be utilized as a key resource for employers and organizations to enhance the current working conditions of nurses and outlines many of the initiatives. For the Toolkit to have an impact on retention, employers and health authorities are encouraged to:
- Share the Toolkit through social media, emails, staff meetings, and with colleagues and other healthcare organizations;
- Connect with facilities and organizations throughout Canada that are highlighted in the Toolkit as best practice initiatives; and,
- Adopt and implement the best practice initiatives by focusing on the themes that have the most value for your organization and/or health authority.
Source: Goverment of Canada
