The extent of the shortage of healthcare professionals in Canada is well known. While members of the public experience it first hand in terms of delays in treatment, healthcare employers experience it when they need to fill job openings: There simply aren’t enough doctors and nurses in Canada to address the situation.
In addition to that, Canada has an increasing senior population. Older people generally require more medical assistance, so as the number of seniors increase, so does the demand on the healthcare system.
While the government is working hard to recruit and train new nurses, those efforts are offset by a combination of the growing number of seniors, and medical professionals leaving the profession due to work overload. For many overworked doctors and nurses, it has become a mental health issue.
Considering the severity of the shortage and the continued pressure on the existing workforce, recruiting internationally is the only remaining option.
Fair enough, doing so requires navigating slow and complex processes regarding immigration, accreditation and licensing – but if that is the only way to solve the problem, it has to be done.
Here are some of the benefits of hiring international medical professionals:
1. Diverse skills and expertise
In other countries, the work environment is often quite different. The challenges brought about by the unique set of circumstances of each region cultivates nurses and doctors who are able to adapt to (often) adverse conditions.
Aside from being a testament to their ability to adapt to the workplace environment, it also means that many foreign medical professionals have acquired some unique skills along the way. Depending on their country of origin, they may even have been trained to deal with specific problems – training which local staff may not even have access to.
In addition to that, they often learn techniques and practices which can be useful to enhance the quality of patient care, even if only in terms of the patient’s experience of their treatment.
When these healthcare workers are inserted into the Canadian healthcare system, they end up not only learning from their local peers, but also bringing some unique knowledge to the table. In some cases, local staff can learn useful perspectives and techniques from them.
Keep in mind that, in most developing countries, healthcare budgets are a lot smaller than in Canadian healthcare – and these doctors and nurses simply have to make it work. With looming budget constraints due to an aging population (and fewer young tax payers), their insights could prove valuable.
2. Cultural competence and patient care
In many of the less developed countries (especially towards the East), respect and compassion are valued much more than in the West. Nursing staff originating from these countries are far more likely to deliver high levels of patient satisfaction.
In addition to that, those healthcare workers that originate from cultures that differ substantially from western culture tend to be more perceptive in their dealings with those who differ from them, which often results in them being able to better understand the needs of patients from other cultures.
3. Filling critical gaps in the healthcare workforce
Aside from the overall shortage of medical staff, recruiting Canadian healthcare staff for rural- and under-served regions has proven to be challenging.
As a result, more and more healthcare employers turn to hiring international medical professionals. In northern Alberta, for instance, one third of the public healthcare system’s doctors were trained in South Africa. Across all of rural Canada, roughly 27% of doctors are from other countries.
4. Economic benefits to employers
In many cases, medical professionals from developing countries are eager to leave their current environments, which allows room for negotiating lower salaries.
In addition to that, by simply filling vacant positions there will be savings on overtime, as well as reduced sick leave due to burnout of overworked (existing) staff.
5. Improving sustainability of the healthcare workforce
For many years, the number of new entrants into the Canadian healthcare workplace have fallen short of the growing demand. As a result, the Canadian-born workforce of medical professionals is aging rapidly, with many of them approaching the age of retirement.
By recruiting international medical staff – who are usually younger – it lowers the median age of the healthcare workforce, reducing the impact of the upcoming mass retirement.
In addition to that, many nurses are quitting their profession altogether – they simply cannot endure the constant demand for working overtime, and the toll it takes on their personal lives. Recruiting more nurses from abroad will reduce the workload of the existing nurse population, and reduce their exodus from the nursing profession.
In conclusion:
While much was done in recent years to encourage more young people to enter the medical fields of study, the growing numbers are still insufficient to satisfy the growing demand.
In addition to that, there is the matter of the aging workforce, and nurses who simply leave the profession due to chronic burnout.
The most logical way forward is to recruit international medical professionals, and integrate them into the Canadian society.
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