Nursing homes get OK for temporary assistants
Nova Scotia nursing homes will now be permitted to hire temporary assistants to help overworked continuing care assistants on the front lines.
Nursing homes can use money in their budgets to hire temporary assistants when they can’t find enough continuing care assistants.
Tweaks will be made to rules to make it easier for nursing homes to hire internationally trained nurses willing to work as continuing care assistants while they take courses to recertify.
Eighty-eight continuing care
assistant positions have been filled this way but the province still has hundreds of openings for people willing to provide elderly or disabled residents with personal care such as bathing and help with dressing. Rules have also been altered to make it easier for retired nurses to work as continuing care assistants.
Health Minister Randy Delorey said the changes are in response to 22 recommendations made by the Expert Panel on Long-term Care, which the government accepted last January. The panel’s first recommendation called for the “immediate” hiring of a new category of assistants to address “a crisis” in staffing.
“We’ve heard from the panel and people on the front lines and we understand and appreciate the staffing challenges,” Delorey told reporters during a briefing at Northwood Centre in Halifax.
“Today we are taking steps meant to provide immediate relief and support for staff and residents.”
The temporary assistant position will be re-evaluated in the spring. It’s one of 22 recommendations made by the expert panel, five of which the minister said have been completed. Delorey said work is underway on 15 more and two are still being reviewed.
“The challenge of human resource availability is affecting the ability to provide quality care,” said Northwood CEO Josie Ryan. “The revisions to the entry to practice policy will expand our ability to hire qualified staff with diverse experience and skill sets. The support for introducing temporary longterm care assistants is a positive step, not only in supporting the current staff to focus on direct resident care but to introduce new people to long-term care and the benefits of working with seniors.”
Louise Riley — a continuing care assistant who works in one of 48 homes where the Canadian Union of Public Employees represents workers — was on hand for Wednesday’s announcement. She heads the union’s long-term care committee.
“It’s a good start but we still need more (continuing care assistants) in nursing homes,” said Riley. “Yes, these assistants are going to help with making beds, sweeping floors, taking residents out to recreation, but we still need more hands-on people to bathe, to turn, to dress, and to feed residents. The staff-to-resident ratio has not changed for many, many years and CUPE is starting a public campaign to push the government so residents can receive four hours of care each day.”
Riley was talking about the Homes for Special Care Act, which still requires only one licensed practical nurse for every 30 nursing home residents and one registered nurse per facility. The Expert Panel on Long-term Care recommended the act be upgraded but Delorey refused to answer a question about whether amendments would be introduced during this legislative session.
One of the catalysts for changes to staffing which in turn, led to the government’s appointment of the expert panel, were accounts from the Dunnington, Ferguson, and Jones families. All three families had loved ones being cared for in nursing homes where they developed pressure injuries or bedsores which turned septic and resulted in emergency hospital admissions and eventually, their deaths.
One of the recommendations, which the province did act upon (even before the report), was related to wound care. The Health Department developed a standardized approach to wound care management, provided staff with better training, as well as funding for supplies such as special mattresses and cushions. Those measures help — but don’t replace — the staff required to re-position people more frequently in order to prevent the onset of bedsores.
Barbara Adams, the Progressive Conservative critic for seniors’ issues, called Wednesday’s announcement “misleading” in the sense that new measures appear to address staffing issues without getting to their root cause.
“The government created a problem with under-staffing and under-funding and now they have made a few tiny changes based on the Long-term Care Committee’s recommendations,” said Adams, the MLA for Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage.
“But these aren’t going to make a practical difference to that senior who is in a wheelchair and can’t get to the bathroom. It’s not going to change their day-to-day life and it’s not going to have a significant impact on the staff because the government still has not designated what is an appropriate staffing level and they still have no idea how many (continuing care assistants) there are in this province.”
Continuing care assistants are not required to register with a professional body, although they are encouraged to do so. As recommended by the expert panel, the Health Department reinstated a bursary program for students enrolling in continuing care assistant programs at the Nova Scotia Community College. Other recommendations the government continues to work on include increasing the use of nurse practitioners in nursing homes and hiring one full-time licensed practical nurse for residential care facilities.
One of the panel’s recommendations where work has yet to begin is establishing behaviour management units for residents who are aggressive or violent toward others.
The challenge of human resource availability is affecting the ability to provide quality care.
Josie Ryan Northwood CEO