Hospitals launch joint recruitment drive
Campaign to fill shortages by focusing on Alberta, Atlantic Provinces set to kick off
When Alberta announced this past week that it was shedding 11,000 health-sector jobs over the next few years, CHEO's president and chief executive Alex Munter took to Twitter, inviting Alberta workers to take look at job postings in Ottawa.
Typically, hospitals in the Ottawa area poach workers from each other. But as demand for labour has risen, that strategy has become unsustainable.
“It's an interesting time. We have gone from having shortages in a number of areas to looking everywhere for staff,” Munter said. “And, of course, everyone else is looking as well. It doesn't help the system if you lure people from another hospital to work at CHEO.”
Now, 19 hospitals in the Champlain region, and the Eastern Ontario Laboratory Association, have taken the unusual step of banding together for a major recruitment campaign on social media and a website that will tout life in Ottawa.
The campaign, set to launch at the end of October, will target places like Alberta, where there is a surplus of health-care workers, and the Atlantic Provinces, which have not faced as much COVIDrelated demand, said Greg Hedgecoe, vice-president of people and performance improvement at Queensway Carleton Hospital and head of the recruitment effort.
“We want to get on the radar of people who might not think of Ottawa as a place for a health-care career.”
Just how many jobs need to be filled? That hasn't been entirely tallied up. But if community transmission of COVID-19 continues to rise, it may be more than 1,000 positions, not including vacant positions in long-term care, Hedgecoe said. The top four needs are for nurses, personal-support workers, laboratory staff and infection prevention and control professionals.
“I have never seen so many jobs available. Everyone is needing help everywhere,” said Melanie Donnelly, who has worked as a registered practical nurse in Ottawa for more than 25 years and has recently been hired to work at the COVID-19 assessment centre at Brewer Park.
Filling positions was not a major problem for CHEO at the beginning of the pandemic, when procedures were cancelled and staff were reallocated, Munter said.
“As we got into normal operations, as well as the backlog of procedures, we didn't have spare people.”
Now, operating rooms are working overtime and so are staff. The virology lab went from a staff of 10 to 100, Munter said.
CHEO is actively trying to fill 339 positions — not all of them fulltime — by sometime in December. The hospital also hired 306 people between March 13 and Oct. 14. To compare, last year CHEO hired 192 people in the same time period.
The hospital is enlisting nursing students and paramedics to work at Brewer Park and is looking for retired professionals and internationally-trained workers who want to enter the health-care field, Munter said. Part-time employees are being made full-time. CHEO has even had to beef up staff in its human-resources department.
Meanwhile, CHEO is facing a double whammy on the nursing side. Depending on the department, between 30 and 50 per cent of nurses will be eligible to retire in the next five years.
Health Insurance Reciprocal of Canada, which offers risk management information to the sector, has named recruitment and retention as the top risk to the health-care system, Munter said.
There are two main issues around the job squeeze, he said. First, the system in Ontario was already undersized going into the pandemic. Second, Canada is the only western nation, aside from the United States, that doesn't have a national health humanresources strategy.
Not only is there is no strategy, there's also no data to plan ahead, said Ivy Bourgeault, who holds the University Research Chair in Gender, Diversity and the Professions at the University of Ottawa.
Workers make up about 70 per cent of the cost of the health-care system. But not enough is known about the pipelines that supply the system, how many workers are entering, how many are leaving, their reasons for departing and what could induce them to stay, Bourgeault said.
“Let's not think of health-care workers as pawns. They're not migrant workers.”
Health-care workers say they're looking for meaningful work and a supportive workplace culture.
Stephan Ayotte grew up in Ontario, but has worked as a registered practical nurse in Alberta for six years, mostly in pediatric hospitals.
He and his wife decided to take a year off to travel, then move to Ottawa. But the pandemic put an end to their plans and Ayotte found a temporary full-time position at Brewer Park. He's hoping it will translate into a full-time job at CHEO.
Young health-care workers are accustomed to changing jobs often, Ayotte said. Many work on contract and don't have benefits. He is looking for work-life balance.
“One of the nice things about this job is that I don't have to work the night shift,” he said. “And the management team has a huge effect on the culture of the workplace.”
For some newly hired workers, the pandemic has offered unexpected opportunities.
Donnelly hopes working at the assessment centre will take her a step closer to her goal of working in pediatrics.
“It's a huge opportunity for those who want to work with children and families, and to work with a strong team.”
Julie Vachon, a nursing student in her final year at the University of Ottawa, works three or four 12hour shifts a week at the assessment centre. Many of her classmates have already found work in hospitals.
“This opportunity has been a positive side of the pandemic for me,” Vachon said. “This is like a dream come true. I have wanted to work in pediatrics since I started.”