International nurse migration to Canada: are we missing the bigger picture?

Abstract

The report "Tested Solutions for Eliminating Canada's Registered Nursing Shortage" (Tomblin Murphy et al. 2009) projects a nursing shortage in Canada and offers strategies for eliminating that shortage. Using a population needs-based approach, the report estimates that in the year 2007, the shortage of nurses was 11,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) registered nurses. By 2022, the shortage will grow to almost 60,000 FTE RNs. Strategies proposed by the authors to address the RN shortage include increasing nurses' productivity, reducing annual absenteeism, increasing enrolment and reducing attrition in entry-to-practice education programs, improving the retention of practising RNs and reducing international in-migration of nurses.