WINDSOR STAR COLUMN: There are options to convince more nurses to stay in Windsor

As Ontario and the rest of the country struggle to keep hospitals staffed, you might wonder where we might be able to find more health care workers.

New research by SecondStreet.org shows part of the answer might be right under our noses.

It should come as no surprise to hear how thousands of Ontario nurses commute from Windsor to Detroit for work — the Motor City is right next door and workers will try to get a job where they feel it makes the most sense.

But the number of nurses getting up every day and crossing the border might be higher than you expected.

SecondStreet.org was able to send a survey to just over 3,000 Ontario nurses who currently have nursing licences in Michigan. This research project found approximately 1,887 of those nurses commute regularly to Michigan for work.

Further, another 248 Ontario nurses hope to work in Michigan in the future.

For context, Windsor Regional Hospital currently employs 1,862 nurses. That means enough nurses to fill an entire extra hospital work in Michigan instead of here in Canada.

While Windsor Regional Hospital appears to have made some strides recently in attracting nurses through its new $25,000 signing bonus, our report shows the problems run deeper than just money.

When asked what the most significant reason was that led them to work in the U.S., most nurses responded that availability of work (30 per cent) was the most common reason. Many indicated they wanted full-time, stable hours, but such work was unavailable in Canada.

Many nurses said it was a struggle to find full-time positions in Ontario, while it was much easier to do so in Detroit. To quote one survey respondent: “Give nurses full-time contracts!”

Compensation was the second most common response (25 per cent), followed by working conditions (23 per cent).

One nurse told SecondStreet.org: “Union at health care facility (is) protecting bad employees, it (becomes) hard for management to take (disciplinary) actions against bad employees due to union.”

Similarly, another nurse noted: “Stop the absurd amount of waste. There is no need for most of the administrators in health care.”

Some raised concerns about the level of technology in Canada.

One nurse wrote: “Get current with the technology and upgrade the hospitals in the community.”

In fact, when SecondStreet.org spoke with Liz McDowell, a nurse from Windsor with 50 years of experience (about 15 in Canada and 35 in the U.S.), she told us nurses in Canada have to work with “outdated and minimal equipment.”

It’s a problem she largely attributes to politics — areas that tend not to vote for the party in government “aren’t prioritized.”

Moving forward, if government-run hospitals addressed some of the concerns raised in the survey, they could potentially convince hundreds of nurses to work locally instead of crossing the border. If they don’t, don’t be surprised to see more nurses continuing to cross the border in the future.

Also, going forward it is no longer just government-run hospitals that could potentially convince some of these nurses to work in Canada.

Remember, Premier Doug Ford announced in January how the Ontario government would be ramping up partnerships with private clinics to help reduce the surgical backlog.

Private clinics in Ontario could also soon give these nurses more choices in terms of where to work — perhaps offering nurses the types of work arrangement they told us they can’t find in government-run facilities — full-time work, steady hours, better pay, etc.

When many Windsor-based nurses originally decided to work in Detroit, there wasn’t much choice — work for the government or somewhere else.

Soon, they will continue to have more options. We believe that’s good for workers and patients.

Dom Lucyk is communications director for SecondStreet.org, a national watchdog group.

This column was originally published in The Windsor Star on April 22, 2023.