Nursing leaders met in Ottawa this week to talk about nurse-to-patient ratios, something they say will help reduce burnout and shortages.
Nursing leaders from Canada and around the world met in Ottawa this week to talk about mandating minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, something they say will help retain nurses and lessen staff shortages.
During a period in which nurse shortages have become common, it may seem counterintuitive to call for more hiring, but nursing officials say staffing ratios are an important tool to improve nursing shortages. Unsafe staffing levels are a key reason why so many nurses are quitting or choosing to work part time, said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU).
The summit, which was hosted by CFNU, brought together national and international nursing leaders, including Canada’s Chief Nursing Officer Leigh Chapman and nursing union heads from British Columbia, which is the first province in Canada to introduce minimum nurse-to-patient ratios and Nova Scotia, which is working on implementing them. The summit also heard from American, British and Australian nursing leaders.
Mandated nurse-patient ratios are new in Canada but they have been in place in other parts of the world for years.
Kimberly McMillan, associate professor at uOttawa and a speaker at the summit said there is plenty of evidence that more nurses are better for patients.
“We have had data for decades to say that more nursing hours equals better patient outcomes.”
They are also an important nurse safety and nurse retention issue, said Silas. Without that, nurses risk burnout, low job satisfaction and the possibility of moral injuries from being unable to offer the care they know patients need, she said.
“It is a solution for patient safety,” Silas said, “but also a solution to retain our nurses.”
Half of nurses in Canada work part time. Silas said nursing officials often hear that is related to job satisfaction and workloads.
”What they are telling us is they can’t handle the workload. They love being a nurse, but they hate their job,” said Silas.
In Canada, the number of nurses assigned to hospital units is often based on patient acuity levels. That means patients who require critical care typically have one-on-one nursing care. But staffing levels for patients who are not receiving critical care are often inadequate for nurses to have time to do their work properly, said Silas.
Ontario has the lowest rate of registered nurses per 100,000 people, at 651, a number that is dropping, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released earlier this year.
The RN-to-population ratio in the rest of the country has also declined — from an average of 830 RNs-per-100,000 in 2021 to 825 RNs-per-100,000 in 2022, according to CIHI.
Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelinas introduced a private members bill earlier this year that would regulate patient-nurse ratios to prevent burnout, but that bill did not move forward.
