Abstract

No issue will have as profound an effect on the future of healthcare services in Canada as how well, or poorly, we plan and manage our health human resources. If we fail as a nation to train the providers we need and to retain sufficient numbers of them within the health system, little else will matter.While long-term, sustainable financing is essential to quality healthcare services, it is not sufficient. If we are short of nurses and then add money to the health system, we get rapid growth in nursing pay rather than more nurses. Higher pay is not a solution to shortage.