que. hospitals backtrack on hiring unskilled workers for operating rooms
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following an outcry from nursing unions, doctors and employees, a montreal health authority says it is rethinking its plan to hire “technical assistants” to replace nurses in operating rooms at two east-end hospitals.
because of chronic staff shortages, the maisonneuve-rosemont and santa cabrini hospitals were planning to hire “technical assistants” with no post-secondary education and only eight weeks of on-the-job training to replace nurses, the montreal gazette reported friday. the new hires were intended to allow the hospitals to reopen several operating rooms closed because of a lack of staff.
informed of the plans at a short meeting wednesday, nurses at the institutions called it an “insult to the profession” and said it would lead to an exodus of nurses at the hospitals.
the ciusss de l’est-de-l’îe-de-montréal, the regional health authority responsible for the two hospitals, said saturday the decision on how to alleviate surgical waiting times for their patients will be discussed with all employees who work in the operating rooms.
“in the last months, the lack of staff, particularly of nurses and assistant nurses, has had an important impact on the activities of the operating rooms,” spokesperson julie lafleur wrote in a statement. “we are looking for solutions that will allow us to reduce the waiting times for our patients and ease the burden on our staff, who are too often faced with an overabundance of tasks.
“we believe, however, that the solution must be considered with the different teams working in our operating rooms. that is why discussion groups with employees will be organized in the coming weeks to share different points of view and find a solution together that works for everyone.
“since the staffing problem will not be solved for several months, we remain convinced that we must find new ways of doing things in order to be able to operate on our patients with reasonable delays.”
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the two hospitals, which serve a population of more than 535,000 people, should have 22 functioning operating rooms between them, but have staff available to operate only 15.
jonathan perrier, assistant director of professional services with the ciusss de l’est-de-l’île-de-montréal, confirmed on thursday that the ciusss is conducting a pilot project and has posted jobs for 10 technical assistants to work in operating rooms, four at santa cabrini and six at maisonneuve-rosemont.
the job openings have been posted on the ciusss website and successful candidates could train in april and may and be working in operating rooms by june.
spokesperson lafleur said she did not know on saturday whether those job postings would be removed.
nurses, who require three or four years of post-secondary education, plus a year of on-the-job training before they are qualified to work in the or, called the move “a slap in the face.” several said they would quit or move to other departments because of the pilot project.
pierre-david gagné, assistant chief nurse of night surgery at maisonneuve-rosemont hospital, noted on saturday the ciusss de l’est-de-l’île-de-montréal did not say it would officially stop the hiring of technical assistants, suggesting it has not abandoned the idea.
“we know that often they tell us one thing, but then retroactively they go back to it,” he said. “but for us it is out of the question. there is a general indignation among all the staff for this idea. …
“they are basically asking for someone with a mcdonald’s level of training to assist on kidney transplant operations, where we often have to deal with hemorrhages. for us it’s total nonsense.”
more than 30 nurses have already signed a letter saying they will resign from the hospital if technicians are hired.
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gagné said the ciusss needs to look at other solutions, such as offering salary bonuses or other incentives to nurses who move to work at hospitals suffering from staff shortages.
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