Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the province is expanding a program that allows paramedics to take patients somewhere other than an emergency room, such as a mental health facility, or to treat them on scene. The program is aimed at health system stability and recovery, and it comes as a nursing staffing shortage has seen emergency departments across the province close for hours or days at a time throughout the summer.
Sleep is essential for the body to remain physically and mentally healthy. However, due to multiple factors, such as the pandemic, understaffing, longer shifts, etc., many healthcare workers are getting less and less sleep every week, which is affecting their work performance and personal lives. In this episode, we offer several recommendations that will help workers get more shut-eye.
An online poll by the Vancouver-based Research Co. revealed that more than a third of Canadian households have been impacted by COVID-19 since public health measures were lifted where they live. 37% of Canadians reported they got infected themselves, or someone in their household. The survey conducted between Aug. 1 and Aug. 3 included 1,000 respondents from across the country.
Ontario’s health minister, Sylvia Jones, said that six hospitals had to close ERs and other departments last weekend, but argued that the situation wasn’t unprecedented. Jones revealed that individual hospitals are working with Ontario Health to try to reassign staff and avoid such closures when they loom, but it happens “occasionally.” The minister also said the situation Ontario is facing is not unique, as jurisdictions across the country have reported similar staffing challenges and closures.
Recruiters in all industries, including healthcare, often struggle with worker retention and satisfaction. This leads to staffing issues, higher turnovers, and instability within organizations. But there are ways around it. And to learn more about them, we recently interviewed Jennifer Lagemann, expert in brand and storytelling for attracting senior caregivers and founder of NextJenn Copy, who provided us with several best practices for staffing and training in senior care.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is doing everything in his power to add more healthcare workers to the system, but is indicating that won’t include repealing wage restraint legislation or increasing a retention bonus for nurses. Many nurses point to Bill 124 as a major source of concern, saying that the legislation that capped wage increases for public sector workers to one percent a year for three years has devalued their work.
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