More nurses working in Ontario, but more also leaving, report shows

New figures show the number of nurses active in Ontario is increasing, but more nurses are also leaving the province for work or taking leaves.

A report from the College of Nurses of Ontario said that this year more than 178,000 nurses renewed their registration with the college, aside from those registered as non-practising, and about 158,000 of them are working as nurses in Ontario.

That's up from about 140,000 working nurses in Ontario in 2016.

But the report said the percentage of nurses working in the province has declined.

In 2016, 91.2 per cent of nurses were working in Ontario in the profession, but this year that's down to 88.9 per cent, as growing numbers of nurses work in nursing outside the province, or take a leave.

"While the total number of nurses renewing their registration and the total number reporting employment in nursing in Ontario have grown each year, modest shifts in registration and employment trends since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have tempered further gains to the workforce," the college said in its report.

The college said more than 9,800 nurses didn't renew their registration this year -- nearly 1,000 more than in 2022 -- though that was offset by about 15,100 gains, mostly new nurses and many of them internationally educated.

Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses' Association, said the government needs to focus more on retaining nurses.

The government has listened to some RNAO suggestions to ease a shortage of nurses, including adding nursing school capacity and speeding up registrations for internationally educated nurses, Grinspun said.

"What they have not done, and we have asked again and again and again, is to at the same time notice that at the same time as we bring more people, let's make sure that we do interventions to retain them," she said.

"And on that we are not any better than before."

Nurses need healthy work environments, including career development, safe workloads and competitive compensation, Grinspun said.

Nurses and other public sector unions have argued in court this week in favour of overturning Bill 124, which capped wage increases for public sector workers to one per cent a year for three years.

An arbitrator has awarded hospital nurses additional pay for that period and they are awaiting another arbitration decision to settle their next contract, free of Bill 124 restrictions, but nurses have said the law demoralized the professionals, particularly as it was in effect in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2023.