The number of regulated nurses serving Windsor-Essex has gone up in the past few years, a report reveals.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information released its annual nursing workforce report earlier this month. The data shows that for the catchment area served by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, 71 more registered and licensed practical nurses have started working in direct care in the community compared to 2010.
In all, there are now just over 3,400 regulated nurses serving a population of roughly 400,000. (These figures do not include nurses working in administration, education or research.)
As of 2011, there were more than 360,000 regulated nurses employed in Canada – an increase of more than eight per cent since 2007, CIHI reported.
The data also shows that the number of nurse practitioners has doubled in the past five years, from about 1,300 to more than 2,700. (This is part due to more investment by provinces and territories in nurse practitioners, but also due to more data being submitted to CIHI.)
As well, a slightly larger proportion of working nurses are under age 35. They now make up about 23 per cent of the nursing workforce.
