The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has released a series of new reports looking at the supply and distribution of the regulated nursing workforce in Canada. These reports show that the average age of Canadian nurses reached 44.5 years in 2003 and that one in three nurses in Canada is 50 years of age or older. In 2003, the average age of a registered nurse (RN) in Canada was 44.5, compared to 44.4 for licensed practical nurses (LPN) and 46.2 for registered psychiatric nurses (RPN). There are 309,587 women and men who comprise the regulated nursing workforce. "For a number of years now it has been apparent that the nursing workforce in Canada is getting older," says Francine Anne Roy, Manager of Health Human Resources Databases at CIHI. "What is fast becoming clear, however, is that many nurses in today's workforce are at, or are approaching, the age of retirement and only one in 10 nurses in Canada is under the age of 30."
