Cost-cutting measures in the wellbeing services counties are creating more uncertainty, which is causing some nurses to consider looking for work elsewhere. Moving for work can start to feel tempting. Nurses are currently being actively recruited (article in Finnish) from Finland to places such as northern Sweden.
Nurses also commute (article in Finnish) to Norway to work, with their home in Finland and their workplace in Norway. Practical nurses (article in Finnish) have also gone to work in Norway.
As nurses go abroad to work, Finland’s educated workforce in the social welfare and healthcare sector is shrinking.
Nurses are not leaving the sector lightly
In a study (article in Finnish, abstract available in English) by Marjo Ring and Minna Kaarakainen on leaving the sector, nurses and practical nurses described their experiences of psychological contract breach.
Nurses told the researchers that they want to do their job in an ethical and professionally sustainable way. However, the constant rush meant this was not possible, as the focus of the work had shifted towards performing tasks efficiently in an assembly-line fashion.
They also felt that there were limited opportunities for developing their competence and progressing in their careers. It seemed that the organisation’s management was indifferent, as the identified problems were not addressed. Nurses who left the sector had lost confidence in social welfare and healthcare organisations and their ability to change.
Career-changers do not constitute a pool of labour
A register study carried out in Norway showed that nurses who have changed careers do not constitute a pool of labour from which they can be quickly recruited back into nursing.
According to statistics, 16% of Norwegian nurses worked outside the healthcare sector in 2022 in fields such as education, public administration or personnel leasing. Although these nurses were not working in clinical care, the researchers found that their work in other roles still supported the development of care work and the quality of healthcare. Experience in clinical nursing is useful for roles such as nursing teacher or researcher.
The register study concluded that the solution to Norway’s nursing shortage did not lie in the nurses who had left the sector, but rather in investments in nursing education and international recruitment.
How can we prevent social welfare and healthcare professionals from leaving the sector?
It is estimated that around 10% of nurses and practical nurses work outside the social welfare and healthcare sector (report in Finnish, abstract available in English).
In Finland, the ability of the social welfare and healthcare sector and its organisations to retain workers needs to be strengthened to keep more professionals in the sector. The ageing population is increasing the demand for social welfare and healthcare services, and at the same time, part of the sector’s workforce is retiring. These factors combined increase the need for more personnel.
According to researchers at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the most important pool of labour in the social welfare and healthcare sector consists of the professionals currently working in the sector, whose wellbeing and work ability must be prioritised.
The ability of the social welfare and healthcare sector to retain employees hinges on concrete prerequisites for work:
- adequate staffing levels
- clear career paths
- appropriate terms of employment
- fair pay
Investing in the social welfare and healthcare sector means investing in public health, work ability and the sustainability of the economy as a whole.
The sector’s ability to retain workers will be strengthened by recognising its role as the foundation of our welfare society and by treating the professionals working in the sector with the respect they deserve.
