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The nurse shortage isn’t something that’s only going on in the United States. Countries around the world, including Canada, are feeling the pain. Even with Canada’s socialized medicine where everybody has health coverage, nurses are scared off, burnt out, and leaving a huge gap in their wake. And while travel nurses can act as a temporary fix for some of the shortages, there’s a definite need for full-time nurses as well as travelers to fix a problem of this magnitude.

“It’s a damning, disastrous cycle: Not enough nurses to fill shifts. Rushed and harried staff who must scramble to provide proper care for patients. Young nurses scared off by poor working conditions, just when they are desperately needed to fill vacancies. Mid-career nurses who burn out and flee the profession, creating even more empty spaces.

This interminable sequence has dogged the nursing profession for more than 10 years in Canada, ever since cutbacks in the early ’90s culled nurses and nursing students from the health-care system to help balance budgets.

There have been myriad calls for help from nursing unions and organizations, from academics and policy analysts, and from the front-line nurses themselves.

Five-and-a-half years ago, Roy Romanow’s landmark report on Canadian health care highlighted the need for immediate action to stem the tide of dissent and dissatisfaction in the nursing profession. The report called for major investment in nursing and other health professions, along with a comprehensive, cross-country plan for the future of Canada’s health-care workers.”

Read the rest of this story in the Toronto Star.