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Why long-term care homes are turning to staffing agencies

Staffing of healthcare facilities can be challenging in the best of circumstances. Throw in shortages in the workforce and a pandemic to top it off, and you have yourself a very difficult working environment, to say the least. The remote areas of our province are in desperate need for healthcare help from fellow practitioners. Nursing in remote areas is undeniably demanding; however, it also offers great potential for personal and professional growth and a forever-rewarding experience. Access to healthcare is not at all fair or simple for those who reside in the most obscure corners of our province. It is in our hands to ensure adequate and equitable healthcare is available for all Canadians, rather than for just our immediate neighbours. For this to happen, the shortage in healthcare practitioners across the province must first be identified and addressed through strategic staffing models that fails not to protect from the exploitation of our front-line workers. In their desperate need, provinces are finding motivating ways to recruit and preserve the country’s most equipped healthcare personnel, including the use of incentives and staffing agencies, as they continue dealing with the unique situations that remote healthcare brings.

Staffing can be an exhausting, time-consuming and expensive process that seems to need a science of perfect variables to be successful – who should I hire? When is the best time to hire? How do I know this is the right hire? The difficulties in these processes are often amplified in the healthcare industry and more specifically for long term care (LTC) homes where resources are not always abundant and reliability is essential. Fortunately, staffing agencies are here to alleviate some of the frustration and confusion, but even then – which agency is best?

We have gathered the answers to some of the industry’s most important considerations about healthcare staffing to provide clarity relevant to you and your facility.