Sudbury's Pioneer Manor looking to ease personal support worker shortage

The director of Pioneer Manor in Sudbury says the long-term care home is making progress in addressing a shortage of personal support workers (PSWs).

Questions about staffing at the city-owned facility came up during a municipal committee meeting this week.

A report last month from the Ontario Health Coalition found there was a shortage of personal support workers throughout the province.

The report found most long-term care homes are short staffed on every shift, contributing to poor working conditions.

Aaron Archibald, director of Pioneer Manor, said recruiting PSWsis competitive, but the long-term care facility is always accepting applications.

"We're always actively looking for new PSWs," Archibald said. "And we have an open application, right now it is open 365 days of the year. We've done a lot of work on streamlining our HR processes to be more responsive."

The goal, Archibald said, is to make sure that workers who want to get involved in the field have the opportunity, despite the challenges facing the industry.

"Specifically for us, right now, we have done everything possible to either improve morale or working short, because there is a vicious cycle when you are working short, that it does impact the staff," hesaid.

Archibald added that the facility has made "significant headway" in that department, and staff have been travelling to job fairs in different parts of the province to promote the facility.

"We have been active in every job fair," Archibald said.

"We're actually partnering with [the department of] economic development. Several months ago, they sent a delegation down into the Toronto area as part of their mandate to look at getting resources up here."