Care delivery business models differ significantly between the two countries, but healthcare practices differ.
Canadians are so familiar with American culture, people, and places that it is painful for many of us to see societies appear to be disjointed at seams. It's horrifying, and there's a good conversation about how to avoid the same kind of division and polarization that currently defines the United States.
But there is another valuable conversation in connection with Canada's long tradition of welcoming Americans in times of Canadian turmoil. The royalists who escaped the American Revolutionary War. An African-American who escaped slavery in the 19th century. And recently, a young man who refused to participate in the Vietnam War.
It's time for confusion again. Americans need to make it much easier to come to Canada, especially in areas such as healthcare that are experiencing mission-critical staff shortages.
Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Life expectancy is declining. Hidden weapons are constitutionally protected, but women's control of the body is not. The Supreme Court judgehas openly advocatedfor homosexuality and contraception as a crime. Schools in Florida are banned from just talking about gay people.
For quite a few Americans, this is all very painful and disturbing. And some of those people may be open to considering work in Canada.
Care delivery business models are very different, but healthcare practices are different. Also, traveling to Canada may be closer to your home than traveling to other parts of the United States. Ottawa is closer to Boston than Cincinnati, Chicago and Raleigh. Denver is closer to Calgary than Atlanta.
Recently, at CHEO, I noticed a significant increase in interest from doctors practicing in the United States. There are enough Canadians expatriates and Americans who want to go out.
Canada's health care system faces a serious staff shortage throughout the series of health care. Trained American medical professionals should be welcomed with open arms.
Our top priority needs to be to keep the people we are in. Late career incentives can delay layoffs while training new professionals. You can delay turnover by improving working conditions, wages, and new care models.
At the end of 2019, we were unable to fill more than 40,000 Canadian health care jobs. The pandemic made this even worse. I need to find more people. It's as easy as that. American healthcare professionals who are already working in hospitals and community health environments are basically ready for work on the first day.
The registration and qualification process for these professionals needs to be dramatically simplified and accelerated, including conditional and urgent licensing.
Ontario Health and the University of Nursing in Ontario recently launched a promising program to support rapid nursing applicants who may already be in the state without language proficiency requirements. It should be possible to adapt it for American medical professionals who are not yet here and whose language is rarely an issue. Healthcare in Canada needs to raise funds to carry out large-scale marketing and recruitment campaigns in the United States.
The average nursing salary in the United States is comparable to the average salary in Ontario. There are many areas in the United States where salaries are much lower and benefits are significantly worse. In addition, trading school shootings for snowstorms is a choice many parents should consider.
But when we look into it, we need a system to take these people into the country and provide care within days or weeks instead of months or years. is.
Canada's long-term, comprehensive health talent strategy clearly cannot rely on imported expertise from other countries, but it can be part of the puzzle. And it's a piece of compassionate puzzle — for Americans who want a better future for themselves and their children, and for Canadians who have been waiting too long for the care they need.
Alex Munteris the President and CEO of CHEO, the Center for Child Health and Research in the Capital Region of Denmark.
He should sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. By clicking the
Thank you for registering.
A welcome email has been sent. If you don't see it, check your junk folder.
The next issue of Ottawa CitizenHeadlineNews will soon arrive in your inbox.
