Non-registered staff to see duties expanded
Monday, March 12, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Some non-registered staff at OMNI long-term care homes will be given more authority to provide better service to residents. OMNI's corporate project director says this move will ease the workload for nurses.

Extending duties of non-registered staff also serves to prepare employees in the event of a pandemic, says Candace Chartier.

Training non-registered staff to perform some of the duties normally assigned to registered staff will provide nurses with more time to spend with residents, she adds.

The decision to train non-registered staff – which includes personal support workers (PSWs), health-care aides, nutritional-care aides, housekeepers and activity aides – is in response to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s mandate to provide round-the-clock nurses at long-term care homes.

“We really wanted to empower these people because they are the first set of eyes on the residents,” Chartier says. “We also wanted to promote the team aspect in the homes.”

Between April and May, there will be two-day training sessions offered at six sites in the province. Some of the basic nursing skills to be taught include checking for vital signs, prescription creams, blood-sugar monitoring and continence assessment.

“We are encouraging them to work with the nursing teams in the homes to use their enhanced skills, as well as to participate on our best practice teams.”

At the end of the sessions, participants will be given certificates of completion. The first session will run April 4-5 in Aurora.

Chartier says she hopes the training sessions will result in non-registered staff being better prepared and more knowledgeable.

“Ultimately, we want it to be more beneficial in the end, which ultimately enhances the quality of care for our residents.”

The training sessions – which are voluntary – have generated a lot of interest from the non-registered staff at Forest Hill long-term care home in Kanata, says John Donzil, the home’s assistant director of care.

Donzil recently attended an information session at Forest Hill aimed at staff members interested in the training program.

“They are really excited,” he says. “A lot of them came forward and requested to participate in this.”