Health experts in Canada are worried that the country might soon be facing a crisis like the one experienced in the 1990s, when healthcare cuts by the territories and provinces drove as many as 27,000 nurses to the US alone in search of new jobs.
“We are very concerned that nurses are actually going to the [United] States,” commented Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of the Ontario Nurses Association, adding that recruiters from Canada’s neighbouring country visit Canada on a monthly basis.
For Gyslaine Desrosiers, president of the Québec Order of Nurses, the shortage is a reflection of what is happening all over the world. “There are global shortages of nurses and all countries are competing for them.”
Some experts are also pointing the finger at the government and saying that more needs to be done to make local jobs attractive to nurses.
