Supports for Health Human Resources

We know that there is a shortage for critical roles in long-term care (LTC). This page highlights Ontario CLRI and partner resources to support LTC homes with challenges around health human resources (HHR). These tools will help strengthen retention and recruitment of personal support workers, nurses, food services workers, and other direct care roles.

Click on the following links to skip down to specific sections:

COVID-19 Recruitment

Retention

General Recruitment

Supports for LTC Homes Staffing During COVID-19

The Ontario CLRI’s long-term care partners are working to alleviate staffing challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ontario CLRI is working with these partners to share their hiring initiatives to the LTC sector.

Existing LTC/Health Care Professionals

The Government of Ontario is seeking those with health-care experience to help provincial efforts to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19. They are looking for health-care providers who may be working part-time and are prepared to increase their work hours or former health-care providers who are retired or on inactive status with their regulatory college.

Visit the health care matching portal.

RPNs

To help connect available RPNs with employers, WeRPN (formerly RPNAO) has launched a COVID-19 Staff Needed section where urgent jobs are posted. If you are an employer in need of RPNs, you are asked to fill out the form on the webpage which will allow WeRPN to list your organization as a job posting on the site.

Personal Support Workers (PSWs)

The Ontario Personal Support Workers Association (OPSWA) has created a provincial database of PSWs who have expressed an interest in returning to assist in both community and LTC settings. PSW students are also available to work. If you are in need of PSWs, please email OPSWA at info@opswa.com and include the subject line “EMERGENCY PSWS NEEDED.”

Health Students

The Ontario Long Term Care Association launched a new job board, Link2LTC, powered by Tazwiz, to connect health students to paid openings for critical roles in LTC homes, such as resident support aides.

LTC Orientation Page for Incoming Team Members

To help equip the new incoming team members in long-term care (LTC) homes during COVID-19, the Ontario CLRI has created a free training on the Ontario CLRI website. This webpage can supplement the training offered by LTC homes in order to orient new team members to LTC culture and give them basic skills for supporting residents and assisting PSWs, Nurses, etc.

This orientation is intended to support the orientation you will receive from an LTC home and contains both Ontario CLRI and external/partner resources. Additional resources will continue to be added.

If you have any questions or suggestions for content, please email info@clri-ltc.ca.

Resources and Initiatives for Retention

Excellence in Resident Centred-Care (ERCC)

This is a training program for PSWs and other team members to build practical skills using a person-centred approach. The program contributes to retention of PSWs in LTC homes.

Team Essentials

Team Essentials offers innovative in-person and eLearning education to build strong LTC teams and help with retention, with a focus on priority practice issues.

Nursing Leadership

The Nursing Leadership Training Program is intended to build leadership excellence among clinical leaders working in LTC. These sessions build a strong foundation in leadership and conflict resolution and support nurses with professional development.

Communication at End-of-Life (CEoL)

The CEoL program teaches personal support workers and other team members working in LTC about communication at end-of-life (CEoL). Team members become comfortable and gain skills in sustaining therapeutic relationships with residents and their families.

Graduate Certificate in Interprofessional Complex and Long-Term Care

The two-semester Interprofessional Complex and Long-Term Care graduate certificate prepares learners to work interprofessionally with other health-care professionals to provide complex or long-term care to clients within an institution or a home setting.

Resources and Initiatives for Recruitment

Secondary Schools and LTC Partnerships

A resource page and toolkit for LTC homes and secondary school educators who are interested in creating partnerships with each other for experiential learning opportunities for students. There is no shortage of research on the success of these opportunities, including supporting the growth of the LTC workforce.

Summer Student Internships

The internship program fosters interest and commitment among future clinicians to the fields of geriatrics and gerontology, as well as to enable students to integrate new knowledge, skills and values related to aging.