N.S. long-term care home warns it may need military help if staffing shortage doesn't ease

A long-term care administrator in the Annapolis Valley says resignations have increased as the vaccine mandate approaches, worsening an already acute staffing shortage.

Menna MacIsaac, the CEO of Grand View Manor in Berwick, N.S., said her facility has lost 13 staff members to resignations over the past three weeks. 

"Some of them resigned because of the stress of working in long-term care right now," MacIsaac said in an interview. "And some of them did resign because of not wanting to be vaccinated."

Another three staff members are unvaccinated and will have to go on leave once the province's mandatory vaccination policy for health-care workers comes into effect, MacIsaac said. Workers have until Nov. 30 to provide proof they've received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Grand View Manor, which is home to about 140 residents, requires about 150 workers to fill the schedule each week.

Because of the staffing shortage, the home has asked designated caregivers "to take on a more active part in resident care."

"Assistance with meals, mobility and personal care will significantly contribute [to] the wellbeing of our residents," the home's management team wrote in a memo to families last week.

MacIsaac said she's grateful that many designated caregivers have taken up the call, allowing trained staff to focus more on clinical care. But, she said, it isn't a long-term solution.

Grand View Manor is looking to hire to replace the staff it has lost, and to cover for several stress-related leaves of absence.

MacIsaac said vacancies include licensed practical nurses, continuing care assistants and registered nurses. She said the positions are posted on multiple online job boards, and administration is working with immigration agencies to recruit internationally.

The vaccine mandate has exacerbated the staffing crunch for Grand View Manor, but MacIsaac said she still supports the policy.

"We're serving a very vulnerable population and I don't want a tragedy." 

She pointed to three issues as the foundation of a staffing shortage that has been building across Nova Scotia's long-term care sector since before the pandemic. Like many others in the sector, MacIsaac said the provincial government needs to raise wages, especially for continuing care assistants, and increase the ratio of staff to residents.

MacIsaac also said she'd like to see more seats added to the Nova Scotia Community College's LPN program, which routinely has a wait-list. At some NSCC locations, the wait can be several years.