Alberta falls behind rest of Canada in key health-care fields: report

Nurse Iciar Bercian prepares a shot at a vaccine clinic for the homeless in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, June 2, 2021.

Alberta is struggling with a serious nursing shortage, with staffing levels in the province falling well behind other jurisdictions, data released Friday shows.

The report, produced by Preszler Injury Lawyers via the Canadian Institute of Health Information, says Alberta’s health-care system is falling behind, with several nursing fields suffering.

The findings, published in December 2024, cover 2023 statistics and compared the number of professions per 100,000 residents in every province.

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The rarest health professionals in Alberta are registered psychiatric nurses. The report says there are 1,430 of these workers in the province, which averages 30.5 nurses for every 100,000 residents, with the national average being 52 nurses for every 100,000 people.

Nurse practitioners are the second rarest, with 15.4 such professionals for every 100,000 people and audiologists are third rarest, where there are just 4.3 specialists for every 100,000 Albertans.

Other fields suffering from shortages include midwives, medical radiation technologists, genetic counsellors, dentists, dieticians, family medicine physicians, occupational therapists, registered nurses and dental hygienists.

Prezler Injury Lawyers, an Alberta-based personal injury law firm, says the shortage of psychiatric nurses is the most worrisome.

“The findings are alarming and raise concerns about whether mental health patients or those who have suffered an injury, both of which require prompt treatment to avoid complications, are getting adequate care in Alberta,” a spokesperson said in a news release.

Alberta’s Rarest Health Professions Compared to 2023 National Averages

‘One workforce cannot do this alone’

Jennifer Mador, president of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Alberta, say the information is helpful for policy makers.

“We have seen significant gains in the nurse practitioner workforce however, that being said, that’s more in line with the new direct reimbursement model that was announced last year by the Alberta government, which has significantly increased interest in the nurse practitioner role,” she said.

Mador says while there are people wanting to become nurse practitioners, there is a real lack of education programs for the profession and there is a salary overlap between junior and senior members of the field.

“There is very minimal incentive to take the additional education, the additional responsibility and medical and legal risk that is associated with being a nurse practitioner and the scope of practice.”

Nurse practitioners in Alberta are in a unique environment, Mador says.

“The predominant amount of us have worked in the acute care system because that’s where the employment opportunities have been. Over 50 per cent of nurse practitioners currently work in acute care and they work in team-base environments.”

She says while the province has taken steps to improving the environment for nurse practitioners, “one workforce cannot do this alone.”

“In order to efficiently stabilize our health-care spending, we do need to invest in other cost-effective workforce measures and enable patients to see those individuals rather than have a referral program.”

Mador says compensation and a good quality of life is also important.

“We’ve been seeing significant burnout amongst all the disciplines. We know that health care is being squeezed with demanding more services.”

Medical physicists are the rarest health professionals, the CIHI data said, with just 294 in Canada. Most are employed in Ontario – 95 – while Alberta has 34.

Province disagrees

The province disagrees with the Prezler Injury Lawyers report, saying when data from the four major groups of regulated nurses are combined, Alberta has slightly more than the national average.

A spokesperson from the Alberta Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services sent the following statement early Friday evening.

“This supposed analysis was apparently done to promote a personal injury law firm with no expertise in this area; it’s completely misleading and should simply be ignored.

“Registered psychiatric nurses are a subgroup of regulated nurses, registered separately only in the western provinces. Everything said about them in this report reflects a misunderstanding of how nursing is regulated in Canada.

“In fact, when the four major groups of regulated nurses are compared using the 2023 CIHI data (RNs, RPNs, NPs, and LPNs), Alberta has about 1,200 nurses per 100,000 people — compared to about 1,100 in Ontario and BC.

“Alberta has about the same or slightly more nurses than the national average, and under the current collective agreement, Alberta’s RNs are the highest paid in the country (per UNA).

“This report is systematically biased and misleading, and no claim made in it should be reported without independent verification.”