The number of new nursing licences issued in Quebec has reached a 10-year low as the province struggles to staff its medical facilities.
The professional order that regulates nursing in the province says it granted 2,864 licences between April 2022 and March 2023.
That’s compared to 3,565 new licences during the same 12-month period a year before.
The Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec says it counted 83,418 members in March 2023, yet only 92.6 percent of them were employed in the province, the lowest proportion in the last 10 years.
The workforce data, published on Jan. 12, lands amid a contentious labour dispute between Quebec and its largest nurses union and as health-care facilities contend with staffing shortages.
Quebec’s statistics agency says nursing was one of the most in-demand professions in the third quarter of 2023, with more than 10,400 vacant jobs for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses.
