Silas: Nurse staffing decisions must be based on patient safety, not bottom lines
July 22, 2025 (Huntsville, ON) – Patient safety was at the heart of discussions between Canada’s nurse union leaders and premiers at today’s policy breakfast meeting hosted by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU).
“Safe patient care relies on a strong nursing workforce with safe working conditions. We know that in many health care settings, those working conditions are not being met. Nursing is a safety-critical workforce, which demands staffing policies that protect patient safety,” explained CFNU President Linda Silas. “It’s up to us – government leaders, employers and unions – to ensure nurses have the basics they need to provide patients with quality and safe care.”
Silas was joined by health care workforce experts, Prof. Alison Leary and Dr. Jennifer Zelmer, for a presentation on nursing as a safety-critical workforce and the connection between nurse staffing and patient safety. Prof. Leary is the chair of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University and a senior consultant for the World Health Organisation Human Resources for Health Group. Dr. Zelmer is the inaugural president and CEO of Healthcare Excellence Canada and an adjunct faculty member of the University of Victoria.
As Prof. Leary emphasized to premiers from almost every province and territory, minimum staffing mandates are about managing risk, not a workforce model. In health care, this means managing patient safety risks. Pilots are another example of a safety-critical workforce, where the absence of adequate pilots or pilots’ unsafe working hours pose significant risk to passengers. Nurses and their patients have no such protections.
The CFNU is calling on all levels of government to work together on key evidence-based solutions to protect patient safety and support a strong nursing workforce by:
Continued federal funding is critical for provinces and territories to implement these much-needed solutions across the country and ensure Canadians have access to the health services they need. The CFNU is launching a letter-writing campaign to remind the federal government of the importance of dedicated and reliable health care funding.
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The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) is Canada’s largest nurses’ organization, representing 250,000 frontline unionized nurses and nursing students in every sector of health care – from home care and LTC to community and acute care – and advocating on key priorities to strengthen public health care across the country.
For more information, please contact Adella Khan, media@nursesunions.ca, 613‑807‑2942.