Recent statistics released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows Ontario doesn't have enough registered nurses.
Figures show that Ontario has the worst RN-to-population ratio in Canada.
Melissa Simas is Manager of Human Resources at Windsor Regional Hospital.
Simas told AM800's 'The Afternoon News' she's watching the coming retirements of their nurses. "We have been able to replace most of our positions with the graduates coming in because we're fortunate enough to have good relationships with our local schools and they come in do collaborative placement," she says.
Simas says finding nurses isn't the primary issue, it's finding nurses to perform in the more complex areas of medicine. "We do have some difficulty in replacing some areas like critical care, some of the higher level areas, emergency, those types of areas that are a little more difficult to recruit for that we do struggle with," says Simas.
Another challenge faced in a border city is losing graduates to the U.S., she added. "The dollar is always higher there, they're offering full time positions, which we don't have the luxury of offering to external candidates typically," she says. "In addition to that they're also offering signing bonuses, which we also don't offer."
The report also shows 72% of new hires are casual or part time.
Simas says Canadian hospitals are on a seniority based system so nursing graduates are hired on a part time basis and full-time positions are offered internally.
With files from Patty Handysides