With unclear rules about visitors to nursing homes, union leader Sharon Teare is asking the government to provide a clearer policy for how it should be handled.
Teare said the staff who work within using homes have where, when, and what day they work automatically documented.
“There is more risk of visitors coming in and in all due respect, it is a genuine concern,” Teare said.
She said she knows first hand a visitor’s logbook isn’t quite doing the trick.
Nursing homes in the province were the first to have the residence vaccinated and Premier Blaine Higgs has mandated that all public sector employees be vaccinated.
But Teare said that doesn’t extend to the general population, and it puts the staff in an awkward predicament with no standardized protocol.
“It should not be the responsibility of staff who are working, who are there to ensure residents receive quality of life,” Teare said.
“We need to be able to have the resources and so do the employers because let’s face it, they do what they can within the minimal budgets they receive to ensure that these measures are taken into place,” she added.
The president of the New Brunswick Special Care Home Association, Jan Seely, said their homes have “endured much as have their residents, families, and staff.”
“An outbreak is very difficult on the entire home and honestly many of us are very hesitant to just open up our doors and return to business as usual,” said Seely in an e-mail to Global.
This is why home operators and staff have decided to proceed with caution and maintain some of the key measures to prevent illness.
As New Brunswick moved to the green level, Seely said nursing homes were given recommendations that included revised visitation guidelines.
These guidelines contain some things that are mandatory, like staff masking, and other things that are “recommendations” like how to manage visitors, she added.
“Our homes are privately owned and operated and although provincial guidelines suggest it is OK to let a random visitor remove their mask once alone in a room with the residents, many homes are sticking with the prior recommendation of mandating visitors wear masks at all times,” Seely said.
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