‘I can’t do this’: Nurse practitioner burnout may be Ontario’s next health-care crisis

A growing number of nurse practitioners in Ontario say they’re reaching a breaking point under the province’s strained health-care system.

Citing low pay, burnout and unsustainable job responsibilities, nurses warn that without urgent action, the overburdened health-care system could come tumbling down.

Aliya Hajee, a nurse practitioner and founder of NP Circle, an organization that supports nurse practitioners in Canada, said the current reality is not just frustration — it’s a crisis.

“Nurse practitioners have been stepping in to fill these gaps the past several years, but we’re doing much more with less,” she said. “We’re managing increasing volumes of patient care without the support we really need to sustain that.”

A national survey conducted by NP Circle found that only one in eight Ontario nurse practitioners were “very satisfied” with their jobs.

Nearly one in five were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied,” and almost 78 per cent pointed to compensation as their top concern.

“The whole reason I created NP Circle and started this survey was because there was no space for nurse practitioners to connect and feel supported in a system that often feels isolating,” explained Hajee. “And the data directly reflects that this is truly concerning.”

Claudia Mariano, a retired nurse practitioner with more than 25 years of experience on the job, said resentment is common in the trade.

“Back when I started as a nurse practitioner many years ago, we used to advocate to do more, but we’re not celebrating those increases in scope of practice anymore because the increase in responsibility and accountability has not been met with increase in compensation, support or even respect,” said Mariano, now director of membership at NP circle.

“There’s this unwritten foundation that because you’re a nurse, you’ll just do what is asked out of altruistic tendencies … we’ve come to the point where we’re being dumped on … just keep doing more with exactly the same resources.”

More than half of Ontario nurse practitioners surveyed said they were considering leaving the profession — or expressed serious indications that they might.

“When looking through some written responses in the data, almost half of respondents wrote some kind of free-text comment saying they would leave,” Mariano said.

She recalls reading a response saying, ‘I can’t do this anymore … I’m going to be leaving in the next year or two because I can’t do this.”‘

Alongside pay concerns, nearly one in three nurse practitioners in Ontario reported that mental health and burnout were among their top professional challenges.

Alix Consorti, a primary-care nurse practitioner with more than a decade of experience, said the survey results were staggering.

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“It was mind-blowing to see the numbers,” she said. “It’s very scary. Those are my colleagues and friends … and it’s not a solo practitioner’s issue. That’s a system issue.”

According to an announcement by the Canadian Council of Registered Nurse Regulators last year, a new pan-Canadian framework is expected to be implemented in 2026, making it easier for np’s to register for work anywhere in the country.

The change would enhance mobility and remove existing barriers on where nurse practitioners can practice but has sparked a whole new set of concerns around employment retention in Ontario.

“Nurse practitioners are … leaving to go to other provinces where pay is better, and that is only going to increase with this new legislation,” Consorti said. “So, we’re in a real human resource crisis here.”

As a result, patients are paying the price, said Erin Mignault, a nurse practitioner with more than 40 years of experience.

“It’s an exhausting cycle. On one hand, nurses are trying to step up and fill gaps where family doctor shortages can’t, and on the other hand, it causes them to burn out and want to leave the field,” she said.

“As family doctors continue to leave, more patients are dropped into a pot of millions of people who currently don’t have a primary-care provider.”

Ontario is already looking for ways to connect an estimated 2.2 million residents to a regular primary-care provider — leaving many to rely on overcrowded emergency rooms or walk-in clinics.

In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for Ontario’s health minister said the province is continuing to invest in the nurse practitioner workforce.

“We have added 150 new nurse practitioner education seats, removed unnecessary administrative tasks to save providers 95,000 hours, and expanded nurse practitioners’ scope of practice,” they said. “Our government will continue to be a strong partner to nurse practitioners.”

Despite that work, advocates said adding seats won’t make a significant difference if people don’t want to stay in the job.

Without serious reforms and better compensation, they worry the province may soon face a new health-care challenge.

“We’re not just supporting the system,” Hajee said. “We’re helping hold it together.”

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