Healthcare study
Alarm bell for nursing in Outaouais
Quebec has a unique problem with nurses at the moment. A lack of nurses all over the province is leading to multiple job opportunities for nursing graduates. The level of integration of personnel is favourable, around 95% of nursing graduates in Quebec are able to find a job quickly. This could motivate youth who are interested in the profession.
Statistical data about the nursing workforce in Quebec is alarming. Outaouais has a real problem with a low number of working nurses, compared to the region’s needs. Within the 17 administrative regions in Quebec, the Outaouais shows up 11th in terms of the number of nurses per capita. Part of the problem is the area’s proximity to Ottawa, where nursing jobs are higher paid. The Outaouais is far from Montreal, which had 14,152 nurses last year. There are fewer nurses in the Outaouais than there are in regions like the Estrie, Mauricie and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
The region is not doing well regarding the number of professionals-per-1,000 citizens. In 2016-2017, Outaouais had 2,220 nurses for a total population of 389,139 people. This means that the ratio is low: 5.7 nurses for 1,000 residents. With regard to the health establishments where nurses are working, there were 1,895 in 2016-2017 in the Outaouais. 118 health establishments were added since 2012-2013.
A picture of the typical nurse
Most of nurses are 45 to 54 years old. The average age was 42 years on March 31, 2017. The majority of them (around 85%) work in the Health and Social Services network and are in the clinical domain. Throughout the years, around 65% of nurses in the Outaouais are working full time. A minority of them are working in the private sector, the education sector or the community organizations sector. In 2016-2017, in Outaouais, 13.8% of the workforce were working in medical care and/or surgical care, 10.7% in emergency care and 8.6% in geriatrics and gerontology care. The rest were dispersed in related fields.
Quebec nurses of tomorrow
For the entire province, 3,412 nursing permits were given in 2016-2017. The majority of young nurses who just graduated are women (12.7% of them are men). The number of male nurses peaked in 2012-2013 with 13.8% of the workforce. According to the Order of Nurses of Quebec, in 2016-2017, 61% of graduates in nursing integrated the profession in the region where they did their studies.
The Order of Nurses of Quebec is divided into twelve sections within the 17 administrative regions of Quebec.
