14 April 2025
2 min Read

Nursing students stressed: Report

Nursing student sitting at table chatting to someone off camera.

Since ONA launched our student affiliate membership in 2008, we have taken every opportunity to engage with them, including at this meeting at our provincial office.

Nursing student writes on paper as another takes soap from dispenser

Nursing students learn the ropes during a session at school.

Nursing student lays in mock hospital bed while another stands beside him.

As part of their studies, two nursing students take part in a simulation exercise.

It’s rough out there for Canadian nursing students, a sobering new survey from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) reveals.

In fact, The Canadian Nursing Student Survey Results, the first of its kind, found that more than one-quarter of nursing students say they’ve considered leaving their nursing program due to financial difficulties, with nearly all (93 per cent) reporting moderate or high stress during their program.

“Nursing students are an important part of Canada’s recruitment efforts to stabilize the health workforce crisis, yet many are forced to consider leaving the profession before they’ve even started,” notes CFNU President Linda Silas. “By not supporting our students better, governments are undermining critical recruitment efforts.”

Almost all the 3,751 nursing students surveyed from coast to coast late last year support pay for time in clinical placement, a key way to provide relief and help them successfully enter the profession, the study shows.

Eyasu Yakob, a fourth-year nursing student and past president of the Canadian Nursing Students’ Association, agrees. He will have logged more than 1,400 hours of unpaid work in clinical placements by the end of the program.

76%

of nursing students want to find full-time work in their home province.

“Students in male-dominated fields receive compensation throughout their training, while nursing students, in a critically needed and highly skilled profession, are left struggling,” he says. “Burdening students with staggering financial challenges is not conducive to solving the crisis in care facing our country.”

A positive finding from the survey is that nursing students overwhelmingly (76 per cent) want to find full-time work in their home province, with many intending to practice at the bedside.

“Students see the crisis in care, and they are actively working to help,” concludes Silas. “It’s our job as unions, employers and governments to break down barriers for students to practice. Together, we can ensure that full-time nursing jobs are the most attractive and rewarding jobs in our communities.”