1 in 2 nurses recruited to work in N.L. leave profession by 35, new data shows

A new report from a Montreal-based think tank shows one in every two nurses recruited to work in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2022 has left the profession before the age of 35.

The report from the Montreal Economic Institute shows the province's recruitment rate of nurses under the age of 35 is just 50.3 per cent, down four per cent since 2013. Newfoundland and Labrador ranks eighth in Canada in the retention of young nurses, the report says, only ahead of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

"For every 100 nurses that joined the field of nursing in Newfoundland and Labrador, there's 50 nurses below the age of 35 that simply quit the profession altogether," Renaud Bernard, the institute's vice president of communications, told CBC News Tuesday.

He hopes the statistics can serve as a wake-up call for governments across the country.

"There's been a lot of hot air thrown around about the issue of nurse retention, but we haven't seen a lot of policies that have actually worked … clearly things have not been moving in the right direction."

Newfoundland and Labrador health officials have been focusing on recruitment and retention efforts in recent years, claiming earlier this month the province has recruited 839 nurses since April 2023, with a net gain of 78 nurses, according to data provided by the Health Department on Tuesday.

Speaking at a health-care announcement at Confederation Building on Tuesday, Premier Andrew Furey told reporters the province is committed to continuing to recruit and retain nurses.

"We are trying to retain them. They are the heart and soul of the health-care system, and they're important. They're valued, and we want to work with them to make sure that they stay in the system," he said.

Furey said recruitment efforts have been working, saying the province successfully hired 93 per cent of last year's bachelor of nursing graduates to work locally — which Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services told CBC News in August equates to about 300 graduates.

But Furey added that the province is continuing to work with the Registered Nurses' Union of Newfoundland and Labrador to get people into full-time positions, telling reporters more nurses are seeking flexibility in their work and more of a work-life balance.

Brossard said provinces successful in the retention of young nurses — like Manitoba, B.C. and Ontario — have done so by prioritizing that flexibility.

"It's not something that solves the issue entirely, but it's measures like that that take a step in the right direction. Give nurses a bit more autonomy, give them a little bit more flexibility… in their schedule. That [does] help keep more nurses in the field."

Leigh Chapman, Canada's chief nursing officer, told CBC Radio's The Current that governments should focus on retention strategies to keep those already in the sector from leaving the profession or jumping ship for travel nursing jobs.

She believes the public sector can compete with agency nursing in the private sector, despite the notable salary increase nurses can get from an agency in comparison to the public sector.

She, too, says nurses are looking for less rigid and gruelling schedules.

"We really need to think [about] nurses wanting more flexibility, more work-life balance, more professional development opportunities," she said.

"We have nurses who are willing to work. We also have employers willing to pay. And so I think that we really need to shift the balance to focusing on retention strategies. To keep nurses in the work environment in the public sector."

PC Party health critic Barry Petten said the province should also prioritize listening to and respecting the nurses already working in the system, saying he's heard from nurses in the field about low morale across the sector.

He also voiced frustration over the continued use of agency nurses within Newfoundland and Labrador's health-care system, who often make more than nurses hired by Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services.

"If you're working alongside someone, a travel nurse, making three times what you're making, what morale is that? That got to be a horrible workplace…. What they're doing is not working, so you got to come up with other ideas," he said.

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