According to a study by the Montreal Economic Institute (IEDM), almost half of Quebec nurses want to throw in the towel before age 35 and leave the profession due to difficult working conditions.
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Therefore, out of 100 trained nurses, 44 of them will have been reorganized before their 35th birthday from 2016 to 2021, explained Emmanuelle Faubert, MEI’s economist and author of the report published on Thursday.
Compared to the period from 2011 to 2015, an estimated 37 out of 100 nurses left the profession before this age.
According to the economist, the more difficult working conditions of these young professionals compared to their older colleagues is a determining factor in their abandonment.
“The mass exodus of young nurses is symptomatic of the way we treat them, especially at the beginning of their careers,” he stressed.
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Another survey of health professionals who are members of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) found that 71% of nurses planning to leave the profession cited workload as the main reason and 58% cited salary.
“This is a worrying situation as more and more nurses are approaching retirement and it appears that we will not be able to maintain a sufficient number of new nurses in the system,” Ms Faubert stressed.
Quebec has 10.5 nurses for every 1,000 people, slightly below the G7 average.
In 2021, Health Minister Christian Dubey predicted the province would have a shortage of 28,000 nurses by 2026.
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