New research: Are nurses a solution to Canada’s faltering healthcare system?

Written by Merriah Michel, CAIP

Canada’s healthcare system, often praised for its universal coverage, is facing significant challenges. On January 14, 2025, the C.D. Howe Institute published a report, giving Canada a “troubling diagnosis” of its healthcare system. According to that report, Canada ranks ninth out of 10 countries of comparison – a ranking driven by below-average ratings for access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and especially timeliness.

Inadequate timeliness of care delivery and/or access to care more generally is having a significant impact on Canadians. According to government data released by SecondStreet.org one day after the report from C.D. Howe, over 15,000 Canadians died waiting for healthcare in Canada between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024 – a number SecondStreet.org suggests could be almost doubled when accounting for jurisdictions that do not provide this data.

Canadians themselves have concerns about the state of the healthcare system. Our recent polling on the issue shows that while three in ten Canadians would rate the quality of healthcare services in their own province as ‘good’ (31%), a majority feel it is only fair or poor (62%).

Perception of the quality of health care services in own province

While these reports and data have only just entered public domain, the findings should not come as a surprise to government. In fact, in response to long patient wait times and challenges with access to care, several provinces have already implemented a variety of strategies aimed at improving healthcare efficiency and reducing delays. These strategies have included allocating additional resources, expansion of virtual healthcare, and developing public-private partnerships.

While many factors affect the quality of the healthcare system, staffing shortages stand out as an area of particular concern. One does not need to look far to find news articles featuring hospitals that have had to close their doors or reduce their operating hours on account of this very issue. Furthermore, most provinces have published statistics over the past year that paint a sobering reality – Canada is losing new nurses.

A recent study conducted by the Montreal Economic Institute found that on average, 40 out of 100 nurses in Canada leave the profession by the age of 35. This number fluctuates from province to province, with BC and Manitoba losing roughly 30% of their young nurses and New Brunswick losing a whopping 80%. Few could argue that this isn’t a problem for the healthcare system, but simply identifying the losses doesn’t explain why this is happening.

Our research shows that Canadians have very positive impressions about the quality of care provided by nurses in their own provinces. Indeed, seven out of every 10 would say that it is either good or excellent and very few (6%) say it is poor.

Given that Canadians recognize and appreciate the high quality of care that nurses provide, might it be possible to leverage nurses to bolster the quality of healthcare more broadly?

Perception of the quality of care provided by nurses in own province

If you ask Canadians (and we did!), they think nurses should play a bigger role in healthcare delivery. Our survey found that a majority of Canadians (71%) support  nurses delivering more healthcare services, like performing minor procedures and prescribing some medications, while only 10% disagree.

Level of agreement that nurses should be allowed to deliver more health care services (e.g., perform minor procedures, prescribe some medications)

These days, it can be difficult to find nationwide consensus on public affairs topics, which makes this concept all the more interesting. Agreement with the idea of expanding the care delivered by nurses is high from Coast to Coast. This idea has the strongest support among Quebecers (at 80%) and those who reside in one of the Atlantic provinces (at 79%), but still has support among a clear majority in British Columbia where support is lowest (at 63%).

Percent who agree that nurses should be allowed to deliver more health care

Another interesting finding from our polling is that older Canadian cohorts are even more amenable to the expansion of nursing tasks than younger groups. Among Boomers and Gen X, roughly three-quarters say that they somewhat or strongly agree that nurses should be allowed to deliver more healthcare (at 77% and 74%, respectively), notably higher than Millennials (at 63%) and Gen Z (at 62%). In the near term, changes to the healthcare system in Canada will have the greatest impact (positive or negative) on those who need and use it most – including older Canadians – so greater support among this group should be considered important.

Percent who agree that nurses should be allowed to deliver more health care

So, are nurses a solution to Canada’s faltering heath care system? With provincial and federal elections on the horizon, and new provincial governments recently formed, perhaps new and hopeful elected officials ought to be carefully considering how nursing policy, funding, and retention fits into their healthcare planning.

Methodology

Earnscliffe Strategies conducted an online survey of 2,018 Canadians between November 26 and December 1, 2024. The results are weighted by gender, age, and region, based off the most recent Statistics Canada data available. As this study was conducted using an opt-in non-probability panel, no margin of error is possible. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points at a 95% confidence interval.

Earnscliffe follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements | Data tables