To: Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
From: Uvbi Osatohangbon
Date: Nov. 27/2022
Subject: Proposal to Increase the Number of Immigrant Nurses
Summary
Schools have presently begun graduating enough nurses to prevent future job deficiencies, partly due to the increasing demand for nurses. However, the National Health Service (2011) states that 10,000 nurses retire each year. The number is expected to increase by 40,000 new nurses every year by 2025 (Sephel, 2011) due to the unsatisfactory staff levels nurses are being subjected to. A solution that can help improve this current problem is increasing the number of immigrant nurses.
The study organized by Baumann and his associates shows that Canadian-born applicants or applicants with Canadian experience are often favored over immigrant job applicants who frequently end up being overlooked (2021). This study has found that the education, work experience, and skills of immigrants are in many cases ignored, undervalued, or not accurately assessed by those that oversee hiring. It is critical for healthcare organizations to learn to value and produce diversity in their practices and cultures, to be able to provide a solution to the present shortage of healthcare workers.
Problem
Burnout, shortage of residency programs, transition shock, lack of training support available, doubts about one’s own abilities and difficulty adapting to the nursing culture are all things that have contributed to present job shortages in healthcare. Aiken and his associates (2002) observed that when nurses begin to be subjected to unsatisfactory staff levels, they tend to leave their job positions, resulting in the turnover rate for new nurses being high. Earlier published research showed the need for nurses in 2025 to be between 500,000 to 1,000,000 (Sephel, 2011), without including the net of dropouts, retirement, and graduation rates. The growing supply of nurses with an almost complete lack of transition training is an issue that will cause frustration among new graduates, if not solved. This could lead to negative effects on retention and supply; if not taken care of, it could result in a severe and long-term shortage of healthcare workers which will raise the possibility of missed care or patient mortality (Kaihlanen et al., 2020).
Solution
Vision
Increasing professional satisfaction among nurses is essential to maintaining presently experienced nurses. This is not possible if organizations cannot hire more nurses to reduce stress, overwork, and burnout which are factors causing high turnover rates. It is a necessity now more than ever to determine a solution that can solve this problem in a quick manner, to allow for time to fix all the other existing issues that are leading to these turnover rates and increasing levels of job unsatisfaction.
Objectives
I believe that the most efficient approach to the current shortage of healthcare staff would be to increase the number of immigrant nurses. According to Baumann and his associates, this increase would strengthen and support the healthcare system by providing the ability to care for a diverse population that is constantly increasing (2021). Their study demonstrated how providing employment to immigrant nurses should not be hard since many benefits come with the jobs such as quality of life, financial stability, personal and family security. Other benefits that were discussed include immigrants being provided with means to connect with their communities and contribute to the current economy.
An essential benefit that comes with an increase of immigrant nurses is that, as Baumann and his associates stated, immigrant nurses can strengthen the competence of their respective organizations by helping a large variety of people and increasing cultural capacity in their corresponding work environments as they often have unique experiences from which everyone can learn. A diverse healthcare system can help make sure health organizations are prepared to respond to unusual scenarios.
Human Resources
Baumann and his associates found that the majority of International Nurses entered this country under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, a program that selects immigrants based on their ability to contribute to the economy and their skills (2021). Their study showed that even though this program was created for the purpose of providing quick access to jobs, immigrants often find themselves stuck seeking employment even with the profession being in high demand. Baumann and his associates estimated that immigrants, because of the challenges they face with employment, experience an annual wage loss of more than $12 billion. They found that Immigrant nurses with at least some canadian experience are more likely to find employment. These hiring practices end up resulting in discrimination amongst immigrant healthcare workers. An immigrant nurse experience is as good as canadian experience; this is a crucial concept that must be understood to be able to increase the number of immigrant nurses and decrease the high turnover rates that are being experienced by today’s society.
Conclusions
The current shortage of healthcare workers is having negative impacts on the workforce. The first step to resolve this problem should be increasing the number of immigrant Healthcare workers. Baumann and his associates have proved that accelerated hiring, diversification, and integration of skilled immigrants should be a priority when planning to increase the immigration of healthcare workers and a concern due to the current intense demand for healthcare workers in the workforce that will continue to get worse if nothing is done about it.
References
Aiken, L., Clarke, S., Sloane, D., Sochalski, J., & Silber, J. (2002). Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288(16), 1987-1993. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195438
Baumann, A., Crea-Arsenio, M., Ross, D., & Blythe, J. (2021). Diversifying the health workforce: a mixed methods analysis of an employment integration strategy. Human Resources for Health, 19(1), 62–62. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00606-y
Hairr, D. C., Salisbury, H., Johannsson, M., & Redfern-Vance, N. (2014). Nurse staffing and the relationship to job satisfaction and retention. Nursing Economic, 32(3), 142–147. https://go-gale com.sandford.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&id=GALE%7CA375581349&v=2.1&it=r&enforceAuth=true&linkSource=delayedAuthFullText&userGroupName=pet28417
Kaihlanen, A.-M., Elovainio, M., Haavisto, E., Salminen, L., & Sinervo, T. (2020). Final clinical practicum, transition experience and turnover intentions among newly graduated nurses: A cross sectional study. Nurse Education Today, 84, 104245–104245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104245
Sephel, A. (2011). Digging deeper: nurse excess or shortage? The effect on a new nurse. Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(6), 390–393. https://www-sciencedirect-com.sandford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S8755722311000494
