In a plan to help the understaffing issue in Quebec long-term care homes, the province is launching an ambitious recruitment drive.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Quebec’s health minister Christian Dubé announced he hopes to attract between 3,000 to 5,000 new orderlies by the end of the year.
Applicants will be given an $8,000 bursary to take an accelerated training course.
The training, set to begin in August, will last 375 hours spread over three months.
After graduation, $4,000 will be given to the applicant, along with a guaranteed position.
“We’re missing right now, 11,000 orderlies,” said Dubé. “What is of concern to us, is if we don’t do anything new, we could have a requirement of 15,000 to 20,000 (orderlies) because people are aging and we’re opening up new CHSLDs and seniors residences. We need to have a path.”
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec launched a plan to hire 10,000 new orderlies to work in the province’s long-term care facilities.
The paid training promised a full-time job and a salary of $49,000 a year.
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Though there was some controversy over the pay — with some claiming that they weren’t being given the promised amount — Dubé says many of those orderlies are still working in the health-care system.
“We hired 10,000 and today, of those orderlies, we still have about 8,000 of them,” he said. “Which I think is very good.”
Patients’ rights advocate Paul Brunet is applauding the government’s generous bonus for new recruits, but says the province needs to put more attention on retaining the ones that are already in the system.
“In some places, it goes very well, but in a lot of places it’s not going that well,” said Brunet. “We hear the unions, we hear employees — I hear employees saying that they are not being treated more respectfully.”