Silas: Federal Election 2025 must highlight patient safety solutions
March 26, 2025 (Ottawa, ON) – A new nation-wide survey of nurses reveals the deplorable state of health care in Canada, and the pressing need for federal parties to commit to enhancing patient and worker safety through concrete action.
“Nurses on the front lines share the same concerns year after year. They’re telling us loud and clear that this health human resources crisis is not getting better, they are not seeing the support they need at the bedside to provide the quality of care patients deserve,” said Linda Silas, CFNU President. “Federal parties and candidates must not look away. Nurses are counting on you to invest heavily in concrete solutions for our public health care system.”
Patients are bearing the brunt of a chronically under-resourced health care system, where insufficient numbers of staff are facing crushing workloads across the country. Nurses share these sad realities in CFNU’s annual survey.
Most nurses report experiencing some form of violence related to their job over the past year. One in three nurses described the quality of care delivered in their workplace over the past year as fair or poor, with one in two nurses reporting that the quality of care in their workplace has deteriorated – trends in line with the last three years of national nursing surveys.
“When it comes to health care, the conditions of work are the conditions of care. Still, in 2025, nurses are having to fight for better working conditions so they can provide better care,” said Silas. “With far too many patient assignments, nurses face the impossible task of being in several places at once. There is nothing more demoralizing than being ill-equipped to perform your job in the way you were educated to do it – with safe patient care always at the heart.”
This inevitably leads to concerning outcomes for patients, and nurses more inclined to leave their jobs. Troublingly, 44% of nurses report at least one near-miss or patient safety incident within the last six months, with 23% reporting multiple near-misses or incidents over the same time.
These conditions drive nurses away from the bedside and away from patient care. The findings are stark for early-career nurses, revealing that one in three early-career nurses are considering leaving their current job within the next year.
“Fixing working conditions and protecting patient care are the best retention tools we have,” said Silas.
Enforced nurse-patient ratios is the top solution nurses say would influence them to stay in their job. Nurses overwhelmingly support a federal patient safety bill which would include key measures such as implementing nurse-patient ratios, setting limits on consecutive hours nurses can work, and mandating a minimum of 4.5 hours of direct care per patient in long-term care homes. Most nurses surveyed (71%) said they would be more likely to vote for a party committed to adopting such a bill, positioning health care as a key priority in the federal election.
The Canada-wide survey of 4,736 nurses was conducted by Viewpoints Research in early 2025, with a margin of error is +/- 1.4%. More comprehensive details on the survey results can be found here.
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The 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.