Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
The Assiniboine Regional Health Authority faces a critical nursing shortage.
The region is in need of many crucial positions, particularly registered nurses, as well as registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses and health-care aides.
"Recruitment and retention is always a challenge for small communities," said Garlen Maxwell, executive director of facility services with the Assiniboine RHA.
The full listing of job opportunities is posted on the Assiniboine RHA’s website (assiniboine-rha.ca). As of Monday afternoon, there were 40 openings for health-care aides, 39 openings for LPNs and roughly 50 openings for registered nurses.
"It’s a variety of reasons," Maxwell said. "We have term positions, maternity leave, educational leave … and term positions are very hard to recruit. We do have permanent positions as well."
A wide array of towns in the region are in need of additional health professionals, including Boissevain, Minnedosa, Deloraine, Virden, Shoal Lake, Russell, Killarney, Souris, Rivers and Neepawa.
Maxwell said often nurses must work overtime to cover the necessary shifts.
"The staff that we currently have working in our region are phenomenal," Maxwell said. "The hours that they are covering, the overtime they’re putting in and the sacrifices to their personal life that they are giving us, to ensure that our communities maintain services ... it’s heartfelt."
In addition to nurses, there are also many other openings for health professionals. Family physician positions are posted for Birtle, Rivers and Shoal Lake. There are 37 openings in the home-care category and 14 paramedic positions.
Smaller sites in particular are facing staffing challenges, Maxwell said, with some areas seeing three permanent vacancies.
"Essentially you need a minimum of six nurses per classification to cover a rotation where they work every other weekend, and you have three shifts in a 24-hour period," Maxwell said.
"So if you’re down three of those six or eight positions, then you really are in trouble."
Maxwell said the RHA is continually looking at recruitment and retention strategies to help the problem.
"We attend many job fairs, we do presentations at the universities … and we provide grad mentorship programs for RNs and LPNs," she said.
Nursing students have the opportunity to take summer health-care aide relief positions in the region, and the RHA hopes by doing so, they will attract them when they become licensed nurses.
» jaustin@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition April 17, 2012
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The Assiniboine Regional Health Authority faces a critical nursing shortage.
The region is in need of many crucial positions, particularly registered nurses, as well as registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses and health-care aides.
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The Assiniboine Regional Health Authority faces a critical nursing shortage.
The region is in need of many crucial positions, particularly registered nurses, as well as registered psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses and health-care aides.
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