Manitoba seeing high rate of young nurses leaving profession: report

Manitoba is struggling to hold on to its young nurses; however, the issue is not as bad in the province as it is in the rest of the country.

According to a report released by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), for every 100 Manitoba nurses who started working in the field in 2022, 29.4 left the profession before turning 35.

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The think tank notes that though losing nearly one-third of young nurses is significant, it is still less severe than all other provinces, with many seeing ratios closer to one-half.

Even though Manitoba’s retention is better than the rest of the country, the report notes that it was still 11 per cent higher in 2022 than it was in 2013.

Darlene Jackson, the president of the Manitoba Nurses' Union, said the report is not surprising to her, saying it's something she hears daily.

"We know our young grads, our new nurses are really struggling out there," she said.

"They're coming from a university program, a degree program, or an LPN program where they are supported and their patient loads are controlled for a very good reason, as they're in learning mode, and then they graduate, come into the real world, and we push them off the end of a pier into deep water and it's sink or swim."

Jackson said one of the other issues is the lack of nurses available to help mentor those entering the process, saying they're already dealing with high patient loads.

MEI added that some of the reasons these young nurses are quitting include insufficient pay, stressful work environments and issues with work-life balance.

"Workloads are heavier than I've ever seen them before, and as a result of workloads, nurses are feeling that they aren't able to provide the care they should be providing," Jackson said.

Jackson said the province is already 1,000 nurses short of ideal numbers.

"We're already in a critical nursing shortage," she said. "We need to keep everyone we can in the system."

Jackson said she is hoping the report will serve as a wake-up call for the issues the health-care system is facing.

The full report can be found online.