Labour shortages - Personnel infirmier Québec

The nursing shortage remained unchanged even before the Covid-19 pandemic, and was exacerbated after this incident by a number of factors.

In this article, we present the factors behind the labor shortage, its impact on employment agencies and the solutions adopted by the government to overcome this crisis.

1- Factors behind the nursing shortage

An aging workforce, stagnant hiring of nurses for several years and a 77% increase in vacancies since 2015 are among the main reasons why there are not enough healthcare staff to cover patients’ needs in Quebec.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the nursing shortage has reached a dangerous point. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, salaries are growing only slightly compared to the rest of the economy, with a horrible workload.

Secondly, moral fatigue and depression given the incidents encountered with patients such as the use of ill-treatment, sudden death, the high number of deceased…

Thirdly, nurses’ working conditions were characterized as arduous, given the compulsory overtime (TSO), which is still highly rated in Quebec healthcare establishments to this day. Under this condition, nurses are often obliged to work 16-hour shifts, sometimes on successive days.

And with the overflow of various services in Quebec healthcare establishments due to the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses’ working hours have increased from 6.6 extra weekly hours in April 2019 to 10.3 hours in May 2020.

All these causes explain the nursing shortage. This has had a considerable impact on the number of vacancies , which now stands at 30,000, compared with 20,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike Quebec’s healthcare institutions, this incident had a positive impact on employment agencies.

2- The impact of the nursing shortage on employment agencies

Given the unfavorable conditions in healthcare establishments: non-motivating salaries ($24.08 – $39.00), compulsory overtime, etc., many nurses have turned to employment agencies for better working conditions for their employees, especially with the pandemic.

This explains the considerable increase in the number of hours entrusted to employment agencies to 13.6 million hours, the equivalent of 7,500 full-time nursing positions .

According to the statistical report on Quebec’s nursing workforce and nursing succession 2020-2021: 2,761 nurses, 90% of whom work exclusively for a private healthcare or personnel placement agency, and just 5% have a second job in the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS).

Although placement agencies have attempted to partially resolve the nursing shortage, this is insufficient to cover the needs of the entire Quebec population.

What solutions has the government adopted to solve this problem?

3- The solutions adopted by the government to overcome this crisis

To deal with this crisis, the Ministry of Health and Social Services was given the mandate to recruit over 4,000 foreign healthcare workers, mainly nurses, to join the Quebec healthcare system.

International recruitment for healthcare staff, mainly nurses, will take place in countries such as France, Belgium, the Maghreb, Brazil and Lebanon.

From our point of view, we propose other solutions to retain and motivate healthcare staff, such as :