Number of newly licensed Quebec nurses reaches 10-year low

The workforce data land amid a contentious labour dispute between Quebec and its largest nurses union, the 80,000-member Fédération Interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec — known as the FIQ — and as health-care facilities contend with staffing shortages. Unions representing more than 550,000 public sector workers went on strike in November, and the FIQ is the only one without some sort of agreement with the province; working conditions are the major sticking point.

Quebec’s statistics agency says nursing was one of the most in-demand professions in the third quarter of 2023, with more than 10,400 vacant jobs for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses.

Meanwhile, both health-care wait-lists and emergency room wait times have steadily increased in recent years. There were 164,168 people awaiting non-cardiac surgery in Quebec at the beginning of December 2023, up from 129,371 in December 2020.

In emergency rooms, the seven-day average wait time to see a doctor after triage was 3.14 hours on Jan. 8, 2024, compared to 1.82 hours two years earlier.

The professional order’s report doesn’t include possible reasons for the decrease in new nursing licences, and the organization declined to elaborate when contacted by The Canadian Press on Friday. It said in an email statement that it’s developing an action plan with the Quebec government to increase the number of qualified nurses in the province in 2024, but declined to provide further details. The order added, however, that it is “hopeful” the number of new licences will increase in the year ahead.

In an interview, Canadian Nurses Association CEO Tim Guest said he doesn’t know why Quebec was issuing fewer licences. But he said the drop was not surprising given a national shortage of nurses, driven by what he described as dissatisfaction with work conditions in the profession, such as excessive overtime.

Guest said he wasn’t aware of comparable decreases in other provinces, but he said he has heard reports of nursing schools struggling to recruit students.

In an emailed statement, the FIQ union said Quebec needs to improve working conditions in order to attract workers to its health system. The union called the decline in the number of new nursing licences “very worrying.”

“Care professionals are an extremely valuable resource, but the government isn’t making them a priority,” the statement reads. “This is very disappointing and frustrating for the FIQ members who single-handedly uphold the health-care system, and for the patients!”

Quebec’s Health Department did not respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 12, 2024.

Thomas MacDonald, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Number of newly licensed Quebec nurses reaches 10-year low

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