Report on fraying resilience among the Ontario Registered Practical Nurse Workforce in long‐term care homes during COVID‐19

Abstract

Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) have been at the forefront of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as the largest regulated health professional workforce in Ontario long-term care (LTC) homes (Odom-Forren, 2020). The LTC sector has been significantly impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic due in part to insufficient processes for pandemic preparedness and the historical challenges, such as chronic staffing shortages, low staffing levels, heavy workloads, punitive measures for staff who are sick, structural deficiencies, and lack of infection control processes (Marrocco et al., 2021;McGilton et al., 2020). Awareness of chronic under staffing and funding of the LTC sector came to the fore with the Romanow Report (Romanow, 2000). Two decades later, the demand

Health Provider Experiences in Supporting Social Connectedness Between Families and Older Adults Living in Long-Term Care Homes

“…A growing body of evidence emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that health providers working in LTCH experienced profound negative impacts on their health and well-being as a result of the working conditions they faced ( Martin et al, 2021 ; Reynolds et al, 2022 ; Statistics Canada, 2021 ). Moving forward from the the pandemic, LTCH health provider retention and recruitment has emerged as a widespread and troubling concern ( Connelly et al, 2023 ; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2021 ; White et al, 2021 ). In order to provide the care and support OA-LTCH require across a range of situations, including seasonal outbreaks, attention must be given to providing the resources, tools, and funding that LTCH require to function safely and compassionately for both OA and health providers.…”