Chatham-Kent Health Alliance officials said they continue to make strides in the effort to fill job vacancies created in no small part due to post-pandemic burnout.
Health-care facilities across the province saw staff leave in large numbers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Long hours and challenging work conditions saw health-care professionals and support staff exit the business.
The provincial average for job vacancy rates at Ontario hospitals at the end of March sat at about 11.2 per cent, according to the Ontario Hospital Association.
Locally, Meredith Whitehead, vice-president of transformation and the CKHA’s chief nursing executive, said the numbers here were about 7.8 per cent.
Presently, that local number has shrunk to 6.7 per cent.
“It provides a much more encouraging outlook for staffing for the hospital,” Whitehead said of the lower staff vacancy rate. “We’ve also made big strides with respect to our Registered Nurse hiring.”
The provincial RN vacancy rate is 16.4 per cent. Here in C-K, the number is 11.4 per cent.
“We have been able to hire 21 new graduate nurses who did their placements with us,” Whitehead said. “(Nursing) students report a very positive experience with their placement time with us.”
The ministry of health has stepped up with a grant program, she added.
“We can offer a grant for up to $25,000 for a signing bonus for a new graduate that comes to our organization and stays for two years,” Whitehead says of nursing school graduates, adding it is a community commitment program.
The singing bonus is handed out over a two-year period.
Whitehead said when the current allotment of funds is utilized by the hospital hiring new RNs, CKHA officials will go back to the province and ask for additional support.
