Canada headed for nursing shortage ‘beyond anything we’ve ever experienced’: experts

Canada's nurses say they are burnt out and considering leaving the profession as Omicron cases continue to surge across the country, leaving them understaffed and under-resourced.

This month, Sonja Bernhard is giving up the full-time nursing career she’s held for 15 years.

The St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton nurse says chronic understaffing, limited resources, constant overtime and poor pay, fuelled by surging rates of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, led her to take a part-time role, which she’ll supplement with another job that pays $6 less per hour.

Despite knowing the profession needs her now more than ever, she says she simply cannot work under such “dangerous” conditions any longer.

“I’m tired, done, finished, mentally checked out. I am 100 per cent burnt out,” Bernhard says.

Advocates for the nursing sector are sounding the alarm of an impending “public health crisis” as burnt-out workers like Bernhard take a step back from the profession, or contemplate leaving the sector altogether, as surging rates of Omicron across the country stretch already limited staff to breaking point.

“When you add these things together, you get a recipe for a level of burnout which is well beyond anything that we’ve ever experienced. And it will manifest itself in people leaving in significant numbers,” says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

“This is the public health crisis that we’re not talking about.”

The warning comes as Ontario Premier Doug Ford this week announced several new COVID-19 public health measures, including moving schools online and enacting restaurant and gym closures and capacity limits as the province struggles to contain the spread of Omicron.