CIHI has compiled 2021 data on selected health professionals, including nurses and physicians, to inform on how the pandemic has impacted health care workers and the care Canadians have received. Health care workers are the foundation that keeps our health care systems running. Without them there is no system to deliver care.
One thing that for sure the pandemic has taught us is how central the health of our society, our health care system, is to a well-functioning society. So, we do need to build a more resilient health care system that can sustain this. We need to do the work to ensure that we’ve got that resilient health care system so it’s there when people need it.— Laura Greer, Patient advocate
This report covers the following topics:
- Supply and distribution of health professionals
- Physician payment
- Working throughout the pandemic
- System impacts and response
COVID-19 has created challenges for Canada’s health care systems, not the least of which is the supply, distribution and overall wellness of our nation’s health workforce. Given the current situation in health care, many jurisdictions are examining how to maintain appropriate and safe staffing levels, as well as how to build health workforce capacity for the future. This includes ensuring funding for education, augmenting recruitment efforts via interjurisdictional and international channels, and implementing retention initiatives focused on keeping the appropriate balance of health care workers providing direct patient care in settings where they are needed.
This report provides a high-level summary of some of these critical issues and updates our understanding with the most current data available. Most of the results are presented at the pan-Canadian level and provide an overall picture of the challenges and opportunities. There may be some variation when looking deeper at jurisdictional levels or by a particular health professional and/or care setting.
Note: There are more than 30 professions and occupations in the health care sector. Detailed data on a number of these professions can be found in the Download the data section. The remaining sections of the report focus mainly on nurses and physicians, with key points for a few other professionals such as personal support workers.
Here are the highlights for 2021, based on the data available from the jurisdictions:
In 2021, average overtime hours among health care workers were the highest they have been in over a decade.Reference1 More than 236,000 (21%) employees in health occupations worked overtime, with averages of 8.2 hours per week of paid overtime and 5.8 hours per week of unpaid overtime.Reference1 Paramedics (45%), salaried general practitioners/family physicians (34%) and respiratory therapists (31%) had the highest proportions of workers working overtime.
Between 2020 and 2021, physicians provided 7.9% fewer health care services in Canada (a 7.1% decrease for family medicine and an 8.9% decrease for specialists). This was the first time total physician payments decreased (2% decline) in 20 years, likely due to COVID-19–related public health measures, including shifting priorities to address COVID-19 needs and the resulting decrease in non-critical care and elective surgeries.
The pace of growth in the supply of family physicians slowed over the last 10 years, while nurse practitioners (NPs) became one of the fastest-growing professions in health care. For family doctors, average annual growth slowed from 3.4% (between 2012 and 2014) to 1.3% (between 2019 and 2021), compared with a steady growth rate for NPs over the same time periods (9.8% and 9.6%). Utilization of NPs can reduce pressure on the health care system and improve access to primary care, particularly in rural and remote settings.
Between 2020 and 2021, there were declines in the number of registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) employed in direct care in long-term care and community health agencies, respectively . However, there were increases in areas such as private nursing agencies, occupational health and self-employment. There were almost 500 fewer RNs in direct care employment in long-term care (2.2% decline) and over 100 fewer LPNs in direct care employment in community health agencies (0.8% decline). Throughout the same time period, there was an increase of 1,251 RNs (6.5% increase) and 667 LPNs (8.2% increase) employed in direct patient care jobs in areas such as private nursing agencies, occupational health centres and self-employment.
References
- 1.
- Back to Reference 1 in text
- Adapted from Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, July 20, 2022. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.