OSHAWA -- There's not a lot of care in the caring anymore in Ontario's nursing homes, said health care workers at a recent information picket outside an Oshawa home.
The Ontario Federation of Health Care Workers was outside The Wynfield nursing home on Thursday. It was the latest stop on a provincial tour aimed at pressuring the Ontario government to invest more in the Province's long-term care facilities.
The biggest problem is staffing, said Nicole Desjardins, a union organizer at The Wynfield. Workers are often short-handed when someone calls in sick or injured.
"It puts everybody behind. The residents aren't getting changed when they want to be changed, they're not getting fed when they want to be fed," said Ms. Desjardins, adding not only are meals late, but medication can also be late as well.
The nurses say they often have to do "double med passes," meaning they administer medication to 64 residents as opposed to 32.
"When a nurse is working short and giving meds to 64 residents instead of 32, there could be medication errors or something forgotten," said Ms. Desjardins.
The union also raised concerns about the diapers used for incontinent residents. The Province allots $1.20 per day per resident for diapers. Each one costs about half that, but they're designed for more than one use. Within the nursing home industry, workers are told they must stay on until a certain level of fullness is reached. But even if the diaper policy changed, the union questioned whether there's enough staffing to improve that standard of care.
"I find it frustrating and a little degrading when the members of society who built this province to be the great province that it is have to wait to be changed when you don't do that to newborns," Ms. Desjardins said.
Even when the home is adequately staffed, there's not time to spend quality time with the residents, she added.
"Even just picking out your clothes every day, wouldn't it be nice to have an extra 10 minutes with Mrs. Smith to say, 'You wore that yesterday, wouldn't you like to wear something else today?'"
A personal support worker at The Wynfield, Danielle Lapierre popped by to visit the protesters before heading in to start her shift. Ms. Lapierre said there's generally three workers for every 30 residents. If one is on break or lunch, that leaves two people to rush the residents through their personal care routines.
"It's kind of like a lose-lose situation. You're rushing them so they feel more agitated," said Ms. Lapierre.
She said she tries to treat the residents as if they were her own parents and thinks they deserve better.
Ms. Desjardins said more needs to be done to make ensure residents are receiving the care they're entitled to under their bill of rights. She doesn't think plans by the government to introduce roughly one more nurse and one more personal support worker per home is enough. She also wants more oversight from the government, including a better inspection process for the homes.
Until that happens, the union will continue picketing homes across Ontario.
"We're going to continue until we're exhausted or we've gotten the government's ear to do something."
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