Number of nurses in Canada has risen, more than half working full time: report

OTTAWA – A new report says the number of nurses in Canada has risen by more than eight per cent in the last five years.

Thursday’s report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says more than 360,000 regulated nurses were employed across the country in 2011.

Despite the growth in nursing employment overall, the number of registered nurses per 100,000 people in the population still falls below the peak reached in the early 1990s.

The report says the proportion of nurses under age 35 rose to almost 24 per cent of the nursing workforce from 21 per cent between 2007 and 2011.

CIHI says more than 56 per cent of nurses were working full time in 2011, and more than half of younger nurses found full-time employment within the first five years of starting work.

During the same period, the number of nurse practitioners with advanced training doubled to almost 3,000 from less than 1,400.