Health Department takes steps to try to address long-term care staffing shortages

The Nova Scotia government is attempting to address long-term care staff shortages by creating a new role and allowing more people to apply for existing job vacancies.

Health Minister Randy Delorey announced the plan Wednesday, as his department continues to work toward making good on the 22 recommendations an expert panel on long-term care released in January.

"We recognize where there are shortages, and in some areas really long-standing shortages in securing [continuing care assistants] to fill positions," Delorey told reporters in Halifax.

To try to fill some of those shortages as recruitment efforts are ramped up, nursing homes will now be able to hire retired nurses whose licences have lapsed or nurses who trained internationally to work as continuing care assistants (CCAs).

Delorey said the move won't cost any extra money because it comes from funds currently going unspent as homes struggle to get the staff they need. The department will review the situation in the spring to see how it's working, he said.

"We want to see the money spent. We want to see the care provided."

It's difficult to attract CCAs

The department has also created a new long-term care assistant role intended to help CCAs with activities, which would then free them up to focus on personal care. The assistants will help with things such as recreation programs or helping residents get from their room to the dining hall.

Josie Ryan, executive director of long-term care at the Northwood nursing home in Halifax, said the human resources challenges they're facing are huge and they affect service delivery.

"It's so important that we increase the pool that we can draw from," she said. "It's very difficult to attract CCAs right now."

Ryan said she's pleased to see the government acting on recommendations from the report and that everyone in the sector is collaborating. Establishing effective staff-to-patient ratios is an important measure they're still waiting for, she said.

Progress on recommendations

Dr. Cheryl Smith, one of the members of the three-person expert panel, said the group is impressed with the government's response so far, noting work on the recommendations started a month after their report was released in January.

They're seeing some positive improvements in the system, but the medium- and long-term goals will take time, as will data collection to help inform work that happens within the sector, said Smith.

"It's very important that we move forward to do evidence-based solutions," she said. "We only put in recommendations that we felt were essential to help turn around this long-term care [sector]."

Of the recommendations, five are complete, 15 are in progress and two — having behavioural management units to support residents and a train-the-trainer bedside program for wound care — are still being assessed.

That doesn't mean the department is passing on those recommendations, said Delorey. Rather, it reflects "the complexity of ensuring we get these steps right," he said.

Tories want more urgency

The province has brought in 88 CCAs this year through immigration programs and Delorey said he's hoping that, along with the programs and changes already announced, will further bolster staffing ranks.

The minister wouldn't say if his government would table updates to the Homes for Special Care Act during the fall session, which begins Thursday. The expert panel has said the act needs to be updated.

Tory MLA Barb Adams said it's good to see avenues to get more people working in the sector, but she said more needs to happen, including establishing staffing ratios and increasing funding, and it should happen sooner.

The system needs far more CCAs than the government's incentives and efforts will attract, she said.

"This government has underfunded long-term care the entire six and a half years that they've been in government and that's created cuts to staffing all across the province."