Ivy Lynn Bourgeault is a professor of sociological and anthropological studies, University of Ottawa, and the lead, Canadian Health Workforce Network.

Canada’s health workers are sounding the alarm. We must act, now.

Policy
March 16, 2023

It is no longer hyperbole to say that we are witnessing our health system moving slowly but surely to a point where it will be very difficult to return.

Despite the weighty First Ministers’ meeting with the Prime Minister on health care, complete with many promises, health workers continue retreating from the system, as they have for the last year, in a sort of slow-motion form of resistance.

Health workers are reducing …

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Canada’s health workers are sounding the alarm. We must act, now.

The pandemic exposes critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning

Policy
February 20, 2021

Health workers in Canada experience endemic levels of burnout directly related to understaffing and work overload. Leaves of absence from work for mental health and stress-related issues are 1.5 times higher among health workers than the rest of the population. Increasingly, health workers are significantly reducing their hours worked to cope or leaving their jobs altogether.

That was before the pandemic. With COVID-19, we are witnessing levels of stress, overload, and burnout …

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The pandemic exposes critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning