A new report is calling on the Ford government to legislate a nurse-to-patient ratio, arguing it would not only save lives and millions of dollars, but improve patient care and stop sorely-needed Ontario nurses from fleeing the profession due to burnout.
The report, on behalf of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions-Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU-CUPE), cites examples of other jurisdictions that have implemented the ratios to great success.
Dr. Jim Brophy, one of the researchers and co-authors of the study, says Ontario should join the growing trend before it’s too late.
“Ontario has the lowest patient-to-nurse ratio in the whole country,” he said during an interview with Breakfast Television on Tuesday morning. “Our funding is the lowest of any province per person.”
“We have a dire crisis going on among nurses.”
Brophy notes that California was the first to pass nurse-to-patient ratio legislation around 20 years ago, following by two Australia states around a decade ago.
In Canada, British Columbia has since passed the legislation, while Nova Scotia has it baked into some of the current nursing contracts and Manitoba is currently studying the issue.
Brophy said in jurisdictions where there’s a mandated ratio, there’s also marked decreases in patient deaths, hospital stays are shorter, there’s fewer hospital-acquired infections, a drop in hospital readmittance rates, and millions of dollars in savings.
“It’s starting to catch fire across the country, because nurses, every time they are polled, they’re talking about the crisis they are in, the levels of burnout and desire to leave the profession.”
“Survey after survey shows that for instance in Ontario almost half the nurses are thinking of leaving the profession,” he added. “And we have an enormous retention problem. We’re going to need something like 33,000 new nurses within the next two years and half the nurses are thinking they don’t want to be there anymore.”
Brophy says nurses are overwrought and anxious about not being able to properly care for their patients.
“The anxiety the moral distress (nurses) are facing is enormous … any given day they don’t know how many patients they are going to have, and for every additional patient there’s an increased risk of mortality.
“So that fear that somehow the person you are caring for could be harmed because you weren’t able to get to that person is an enormous burden for these people that are so committed to their work.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health responded to the report, noting the government “has made record investments in our healthcare system, investing over $91 billion this year alone, including historic supports for our hospital sector.”
“Ontario is proud to be home to the largest healthcare workforce in the country and, for the third year in a row, we have registered a record number of new nurses, adding a total of 50,000 new nurses, with another 30,000 studying nursing at one of Ontario’s Colleges or Universities.
“To continue to support and grow our nursing workforce, we have broken down barriers for internationally and interprovincially educated nurses, removed financial barriers for nurses wanting to upskill, and expanded the Learn and Stay grant to provide eligible students in nursing with funding for tuition, books, and other costs.”
In a release last February, the Ontario Hospital Association was vocal in its opposition to nursing ratios, calling them “rigid,” and “antiquated 20th century thinking” and noting that they have significant negative impacts on the delivery of high-quality care.
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Last week the province announced it was investing $56.8 million to train 2,200 additional nurses.
“Nurses are an integral part of Ontario’s health-care system, providing life-saving and compassionate care when patients need it the most,” said Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.
“Our government continues to expand nursing enrollment in our colleges and universities to ensure we are building the health-care workforce we need to protect Ontario health care and ensure people can continue to access excellent care, close to home.”
Ontario also announced it was expanding registration in “innovative, flexible online nursing training to help personal support workers and registered practical nurses seeking to advance their education.”
In June, Ontario announced it was expanding its nursing workforce with a $4.2 million investment to accelerate nursing programs and add seats in rural and northern programs.
With files from Caryn Ceolin and The Canadian Press