SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Nursing Retention Toolkit

Honourable senators, I rise today to bring attention to an important announcement made earlier this month by Dr. Leigh Chapman, Chief Nursing Officer of Canada. The release of the Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada is part of ongoing efforts to support and retain members of the nursing workforce using practical strategies and tools.

With more than 450,000 members, nurses are critical to Canada’s health care system. Nurses are currently facing increased workloads, high rates of burnout, stress, anxiety, depression and, in some cases, abuse.

This toolkit draws on evidence-based practice, lived and living experiences of front-line nurses and insights from nurses at all career stages, including nursing students. It provides an opportunity for employers and health authorities to work together to develop standardized programs across health care organizations and systems in Canada.

It also provides an opportunity to focus on collaboration, and to work together to find economies of scale by identifying initiatives that can be scaled up and spread to different organizations and jurisdictions.

The initiatives also provide a range of approaches for nurses and employers in a variety of settings to work together to implement strategies that best suit the circumstances of their nursing workplace.

The Nursing Retention Toolkit focuses on core themes with corresponding initiatives that nursing employers can implement to help improve retention. The themes include — flexible and balanced ways of working, organizational mental health and wellness supports, professional development and mentorship, reduced administrative burden, safe staffing practices and leadership that engages front line nurses in clinical governance and infrastructure.

Each of the core themes is underpinned by the values of respect, anti-racism, anti-oppression, transparency and accountability. The toolkit will be shared widely throughout Canada’s health care system.

As Canada’s Chief Nursing Officer concludes:

Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, yet too many in Canada are struggling with their mental health, experiencing burnout, distress and feeling overworked, and unappreciated, causing them to leave their jobs. This toolkit provides nursing leadership and health system administrators with an opportunity to contribute first-hand to making changes in our health care system, including improving mental health and wellness supports for nurses so they can stay mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy, and so that they can keep caring for us.

Thank you, woliwon.