Whats Up Magazine Huntsville Lake of Bays - What's Up Muskoka

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Muskoka’s nursing shortage Nurses Dorothea Tait and Jan Venturelli monitor some equipment in the obstetrics department at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital Site. By Sandy Lockhart Muskoka has a shortage of nurses and it’s only going to get worse in the next five to 10 years. “There is absolutely a need in the community,” says Jean Broere, project manager of Muskoka Cares. According to statistics compiled by Muskoka Cares, a collective with interest in health care, there is a vacancy rate of 15 per cent for Registered Practical Nurses (RPN) and seven per cent for Registered Nurses (RN) in Muskoka. The overall vacancy for health service professionals in Muskoka, according to the survey was six per cent. “That is probably average for the province,” says Broere, but Muskoka’s nursing vacancies were high. To help deal with this shortage, the Muskoka Cares project applied in December for $500,000 in funding for a three-year project to implement several strategies to recruit and retain health care staff. “We need to start working now so we can fix the problem for the future,” she says, explaining that some strategies can be done without funding. In 2009, Muskoka Cares surveyed 23 health care organizations to gather the vacancy rate and other information to help Muskoka recruit and retain health care staff. “We did not include physicians and family health teams as we already know there is a shortage of physicians,” Broere says. “We needed to know exactly what was needed.” Broere believes recruiting more health care staff would improve the quality of health care. “If we have enough health care staff to fill all positions, the workload goes down, absenteeism improves and people are able to spend more time with the patients,” she says. “Now when there is a shortage of staff, they are tired and need a break.” Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare has 17 vacant nursing positions in the hospitals as of January 2010. Robert Hughes, acting chief human resources officer for the hospitals, breaks it down into four full-time, seven part-time, two temporary full-time, two part-time and two casual positions. Hughes says nurses working in parttime positions have scheduled part-time hours but can pick up extra shifts and calls to work full-time hours. With the hospital’s debt recovery plan, some layoffs are planned. “We hope we are able to mitigate job loss through our vacancies,” says Hughes, explaining if nursing positions are cut, those nurses could move into current vacancies. “I don’t think we will ever eat up all our vacancies.” Bev McFarlane, chief nursing officer for Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, says if the hospital nurses didn’t have to work so many overtime hours, there would be less burnout. “A lot of our nurses really have an obligation to patients and say yes when they would rather not,” she says of them being called in to work overtime. McFarlane would like overtime to be the exception, not the rule. Filling these vacant positions would also save the hospitals money, as it would have to pay less overtime. She says attracting nurses is about recruitment and retention. “We don’t want them all to retire at 55,” says McFarlane. “We want their expertise and knowledge. How do you structure it so they are able to work past their first retirement opportunity?” Muskoka Cares is the result of eight organizations with interest in the health care field in Muskoka. When recognizing the shortage of healthcare staff, they joined together and applied for funding for a one-year pilot project to look at Muskoka’s situation. The Muskoka Cares Steering Committee is made up of representatives from Georgian College’s Muskoka Campus, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Corporation, North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network, North Simcoe Muskoka Workforce Labour Board, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Nipissing University’s Muskoka Campus, Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and the District of Municipality of Muskoka. Muskoka’s 23 healthcare organizations employ 1,326 healthcare employees with about one third employed in acute care, one third in nursing homes and one third in community care and retirement homes. According to research findings, half of the positions were assisting positions (personal support workers, guest attendants, unregulated care providers). The other half were RNs (27 per cent), RPNs (13 per cent), allied professionals (10 per cent) and nurse practitioners (two per cent). Broere says they found that only 43 per cent of the positions were full time, 40 were part time and 17 per cent were temporary casual. Fifteen per cent of the employees held two or more healthcare jobs. While the whole province of Ontario and even all of Canada is facing a growing undersupply of healthcare employees, Muskoka will face the prob- www.whatsupmuskoka.com February 2010 5 Photograph: Don MacTavish
Page 1 and 2: WHAT’S UP MUSKOKA’S NEWS SOURCE
Page 3: TV STAND WITH WIT W H FIREPLACE $ 7
Page 7 and 8: The greenest paint available. Zero
Page 9 and 10: Muskoka Landowners change direction
Page 11: Olsson takes her message to Nunavut
Page 14 and 15: Exciting events make winter bearabl
Page 16: Get out and enjoy winter bliss Arou
Page 19 and 20: Snowshoe race gains footing By Chri
Page 22 and 23: WHAT’S UP MUSKOKA SPORTS Figure s
Page 24 and 25: Continued from p. 23 Hockey League,
Page 26 and 27: Opera Guild brings the world to Mus
Page 28 and 29: WHAT’S UP MUSKOKA MARKETPLACE eco
Page 30 and 31: Define Your Space with... Superior
Page 32: Bracebridge 645-3057 1-800-461-5495

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