Ontario’s health-care system is on the brink of disaster. As resilience wears thin, burnout and dissatisfaction among nurse practitioners is on the rise, with many considering leaving—and some already having left—their profession. NP Circle’s national survey of nurse practitioners has recently brought this disturbing trend to light. NP Circle was created by nurse practitioner Aliya Hajee to provide better support for her colleagues across Canada. The survey reveals that only one in eight nurse practitioners in Ontario is “very satisfied” with their jobs. At the same time, over 51% have considered leaving the profession.
The survey paints a difficult picture of unmet mental health needs and soaring burnout levels among almost one third of Ontario nurse practitioners. A growing shortage of family doctors has started leaving alarming gaps in health care. In response, these committed professionals are meeting the challenge, but they’re doing so at great personal cost. Aliya Hajee expressed her frustration over the ongoing crisis. She described the survey as a way to build the type of community that helps nurse practitioners thrive within a solitary system.
“The whole reason I created NP Circle and started this survey was because there was no space for nurse practitioners to connect and feel supported in a system that often feels isolating.” – Aliya Hajee
Compensation became the biggest issue with nearly 78 percent of those surveyed listing it as their number one concern. Retired nurse practitioner Claudia Mariano discusses a typical anxiety. To illustrate how compensation discontent deepens over time, Carr explains that it’s demoralizing when the workloads expand without acknowledgement or assistance. Now, with more than 25 years of experience under his belt, Mariano takes time to look back on how the profession has changed.
“Back when I started as a nurse practitioner many years ago, we used to advocate to do more, but we’re not celebrating those increases in scope of practice anymore because the increase in responsibility and accountability has not been met with increase in compensation, support or even respect.” – Claudia Mariano
At the same time, frustration among the profession is rising during this perfect storm. Mariano spoke to issues of nurse practitioners experiencing burnout. Then, to make matters worse, they deal with the same pressure to achieve more with less and burnout ensues.
“There’s this unwritten foundation that because you’re a nurse, you’ll just do what is asked out of altruistic tendencies … we’ve come to the point where we’re being dumped on … just keep doing more with exactly the same resources.” – Claudia Mariano
The story affects far more than the creatives hired to work on it. Patients exist in this system too, and they are the ones paying the price for a system characterized by high burnout and turnover. Erin Mignault pulls with her 40+ years of engineering expertise. She explains how challenges of family physician shortages lead to more endless cycles that ultimately hurt our patients and contribute to burnout trumpet.
“It’s an exhausting cycle. On one hand, nurses are trying to step up and fill gaps where family doctor shortages can’t, and on the other hand, it causes them to burn out and want to leave the field.” – Erin Mignault
The looming human resource crisis is made all the more complex by a new pan-Canadian framework which will likely go into effect in 2026. This framework allows nurse practitioners to become registered more readily across the provinces. This will likely inadvertently drive them out of Ontario in an effort to find more competitive compensation. Alix Consorti, a primary-care nurse practitioner, said that this legislation would make the situation even worse.
“Nurse practitioners are … leaving to go to other provinces where pay is better, and that is only going to increase with this new legislation.” – Alix Consorti
Ontario’s health-care system is already grappling with connecting an estimated 2.2 million residents to a regular primary-care provider amid family doctor shortages. The increased burden on nurse practitioners will have dire repercussions for healthcare providers and patients alike. The findings from NP Circle’s survey indicate a need for systemic change to address these issues and prevent further escalation of the crisis.
