‘If we want to have every person attached to a family, a practitioner\u2026 then we need to … grow more nurse practitioners now so that we can respond,’ says official<\/p>\n
Across the province, nurses of all practices are retiring sooner than planned.<\/p>\n
That’s according to Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario\u2019s (RNAO).<\/p>\n
Grinspun was in Thunder Bay earlier this week as part of the RNAO’s 11th annual fall tour, where she met with local nurses and students to discuss the challenges they face while providing care and the solutions they envision.<\/p>\n
Nurses and students here face\u00a0the same burdens as their peers across the province, Grinspun said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the same challenges with the shortages of nurses. And a report just came out this past week, on the nurses, in the age (range) of 24 to 35, leaving the profession. It has always happened, but it’s happening in larger numbers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pace and complexity of the healthcare system in the province is what\u2019s driving nurses away, Grinspun said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a portion of people that leave the profession way before they should,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to really work on how to retain nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lack of support for people facing housing insecurity<\/a>, substance abuse, and mental health issues also affects\u00a0the\u00a0nurses today, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got to stop. This fight on people that are unhoused, that don’t have a home, this war that the province is having with them and municipalities in certain jurisdictions needs to stop, people are people.\u201d<\/p>\n The closure of safe consumption sites, shelters, and food banks forces a large demand of the population into the hands of nurses, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou, me, anyone else, we’re all the same, and we need to treat everybody the same way with dignity, and to close shelters or close the safe consumption sites is the opposite of treating people with the dignity that they need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is very demoralizing for everybody, and very much demoralizing for health care professionals that come across people that they want to help but cannot help all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n Grinspun said nurses are leaving because of the\u00a0amount of work and lack of compensation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat employers and (the) government needs to understand today is that nursing is a career filled with opportunities, and if the opportunities don’t happen here in Ontario and here in Thunder Bay, people will find opportunity somewhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, we will continue to bring nurses and retain nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n