Managers at a long-term care home in the region were shocked when they recently posted for a nursing job and received no applications.
“We’re really struggling across the board in long-term care,” said Angela Malcolm, director of long-term care services with the county of Lennox and Addington.
The shortage of healthcare workers across the province is well documented.
“We have a pretty significant challenge across the province and nationally to recruit as well as retain nurses,” said Jason Hann, chief nurse executive of Kingston Health Science Centre.
To help, the Ontario ministry of health introduced a fund to help hire more nurse practitioners.
The John M. Parrott Centre in Napanee was able to tap into that fund last fall.
“We put a job posting out in November, it was up for two weeks and we received zero applications,” Malcolm said.
Malcolm said the situation points to the shortage of trained nurse practitioners.
“The people that are nurse practitioners currently are probably already employed,” Malcolm said.
And it’s not just small-town facilities and hospitals that are struggling to find staff.
Hann said staffing shortages are nothing new, but they have gotten worse in recent years.
“The pandemic, I think, has certainly sped things up,” Hann said
But when it comes to solutions, both parties agree there’s a need to make the positions more attractive.
“There’s not one quick fix to this and it’s going to take multiple years,” Hann said.
In the meantime, Malcolm suggested county council amend the base salary for the position, hoping that an increase in pay may be enough to make the posting more enticing.