Berwick nursing home pays 60% of tuition for future staff
Nursing homes in Nova Scotia face a staff shortage due to the expansion of provincial home-care services.
Nursing homes, home-care operations and hospitals are all recruiting from the same pool of continuing care graduates from community college.
For example, Grand View Manor in Berwick, N.S., has jobs for up to 10 continuing care assistants (CCAs). If graduates stay for three years, the manor will pay 60 per cent of their tuition.
“There’s been a shortage of CCAs, particularly in the valley. We have lost a few people over the last while to home care,” said Beth Hakkert, the manor’s director of care.
Long lineups for home beds create more jobs for assistants in home care settings, which staff often prefer because they involve less lifting and better hours.
The Nova Scotia Community College’s Middleton campus doubled enrolment to 40 students. Despite more graduates entering the pool, Hakkert often must leave shifts understaffed.
That’s why the manor now pays for more than half of tuition.
“Staff are working short a lot of the time, so we decided to go the route of sponsoring a course,” she said.
The province, meanwhile, stopped providing bursaries for such courses.
If potential students want to take them up on their offer, Grand View will take applications until May.
Graduates will find part-time work waiting for them, at the least.
