Canada's health care system is experiencing staffing shortages
The number of unfilled jobs in the nation's health care system has doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Statistics Canada (StatCan) reports that the number of empty jobs in the country's health care system has more than doubled since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, health care workers have been working more overtime and taking more sick leave.
The report, released last week, highlights how health workers are coping with their professional responsibilities through the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the final quarter of last year, 95,800 jobs were available in the health care industry. Two-thirds of the vacancies were for nurses and support workers. That's more than double the 40,100 vacancies in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Health care workers are overworking more. While the average health care worker overworked 7 hours per week in 2019, in 2022, they overworked more than a full day — 8.6 hours per week. Health care workers also took more sick days. Compared to 2019, health care workers missed an additional full workweek due to illness in 2022: 5-6 more sick days were taken by union members, and non-union workers took an average of 5 more sick days than in 2019.
Canadian Nurses Association president Sylvain Brousseau warns the situation will worsen unless action is taken.
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