Nearly half of young nurses in Alberta quitting before age 35, report suggests

A new report highlights some shocking numbers when it comes to the retention of nurses in Alberta.

The study from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) released Monday suggests nearly half of young nurses in the province are quitting before their 35th birthday.

Alberta ranked seventh out of the 10 Canadian provinces for retention with 47.7 under the age of 35 leaving their jobs for every 100 who entered the profession in 2022.

“We are actually doing worse than most provinces,” says Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI and co-author of the publication.

“This is very disappointing to see. Of course, we want patients to get the care that they need.”

She adds that there are a lot of people who could help Alberta’s health care system and “contribute to shortened wait times, but who aren’t because they were discouraged by the health system.”

She says the exodus of young nurses in the province has been getting progressively worse over the last 10 years, with many citing a lack of control over work schedules.

“The inflexibility of the current system, which includes things like mandatory overtime, or virtually no work-life balance, people have just had enough,” says Wittevrongel.

She adds that 90 per cent of nurses report feeling burnt out.

Many who are considering quitting their jobs would be more likely to accept work with an independent nursing agency, the report says.

“It’s understandable why governments would want to reduce their reliance on nursing agencies, given their costs,” says Wittevrongel. “But that shouldn’t be done at the expense of patient treatment.”

Alberta’s retention numbers are worse than the national average, where around 40 nurses are quitting for every 100 that start working. The report suggests Canada will suffer a shortage of more than 117,000 nurses by 2030.

The findings from the MEI report echo results of a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions earlier this year that suggested young nurses were more likely to leave their current job than stay where they are.

With files from Lisa Grant