1,300 health-care workers hired at Horizon since April, says CEO

Recruitment of staff is up at Horizon Health, where 1,300 health-care workers have been hired since April, says Margaret Melanson, the interim president and CEO.

Melanson held a news conference Thursday to talk about Horizon's recruitment and retention efforts, in part to give hope to employees that working conditions will improve.

She said she expects to see noticeable changes in the next several weeks because of the uptick in recruitment. 

Melanson talked about Sackville Memorial Hospital, which was forced to cut its emergency room hours because of doctor and nurse shortages. 

Horizon partnered with the Sackville community on recruitment and has hired at least five nurses in the last few months, she said. 

"They continue their work now with physician recruitment and with ongoing other recruitment. That has been a great way to address this, and other municipalities are likewise wanting us to work with them and we are really pleased to do that."

Horizon broke the numbers of new employees down this way: 240 registered nurses, 163 licensed practical nurses, 288 personal care attendants and hundreds of allied health professionals and support service workers.

Horizon has hired a total of 1,291 employees:

Melanson, who just moved into the position earlier this summer, said she has three priorities: improving care of patients, providing better access to services, particularly emergency and surgical, and improving the work environment to attract and retain staff.

The news conference didn't deal with any progress in the recruitment of doctors, but primary-care professionals are also a priority for the system, Melanson said.

"The availability of primary care and primary care providers, both physicians and nurse practitioners, is central to the overall improvements needed within New Brunswick in terms of our health-care system," she said. 

Gail Lebel, Horizon's vice-president and chief human resource officer, largely led the recruitment efforts, according to Melanson.

Lebel said traditional methods of recruitment are no longer as effective, and the "post and pray" approach has evolved into a marketing-and-sales approach, with a focus on social media. 

Options for making the health-care professions more attractive to young people include trying to engage their interest when they're still in the school system and making them aware of all the career possibilities.