疗养院工作人员：我们“劳累过多和薪水不足”

A man sitting in a wheelchair surrounded by union members holding signs

大卫·贝克（David Baker）和杯赛成员。照片：詹妮弗·亨德森

“劳累过多和薪水不足。”

这就是周一，沙龙·耶茨（Sharon Yates）在疗养院和住宅护理设施外的数十个集会中的一场宣传上的直言不讳的信息。

行动日是由加拿大公共雇员联盟（CUPE）赞助的，该联盟代表约4,500名新斯科舍省人，他们在照顾人们。

Yates has worked as continuing care assistant (CCA) for 14 years bathing, toileting, and caring for elderly or disabled adults at Ocean View Continuing Care. After 14 years, she’s stuck at the top of the pay scale, earning $18.96 an hour.

耶茨说，她过去与她一起工作的许多朋友在过去一年中离开了场地。“他们被烧毁，厌倦了被拒绝度假，厌倦了工资和工作负担。想要更多的居民和没有发生的感觉。”

Staff shortages in nursing homes mean vacations are often postponed or shortened for employees who have already been working under stressful conditions because there is no one waiting in the wings when someone calls in sick.

持续的护理助理和有执照的实践护士习惯于短暂工作，但大多数公民没有意识到如何short-handed.

A male resident who uses a wheelchair braved the wind and sub zero temperatures whistling through the Eastern Passage location to praise and thank the staff. The Ocean View resident is David Baker. He was determined to tell Seniors and Long Term Care Minister Barbara Adams (who was invited to the rally by CUPE because she had worked at Ocean View as a physiotherapist) that one of the caregivers at the rally had just finished working the night shift. Alone.

贝克说：“她是整个部队中唯一的人，她没有辞职。”“她把它伸出来。”

本月早些时候，休斯顿政府宣布措施开始针对有执照的实践护士和持续护理助理的数百个职位空缺，这些助理多年来一直是一个问题，在包括长期护理的专家小组以及包括长期护理的专家小组中已经确定在大流行20个月后，只会变得更糟。

PC政府宣布了170万美元的“人力资源为疗养院和家庭护理提供者的支持”。政府正在向六名招聘人员付款，与房屋合作寻找并进行文书工作，以雇用更多的长期护理人员，其中许多人将在国际上进行侦察。

The government is also making $360,000 available for workers already on the job interested in upgrading their education and wages. The same amount is available for employers to provide “incentives” such as on-site child care, bus passes, and gas allowances to try and attract more people to the work.

Those measures are encouraging, said Mary Fougere, a national representative for CUPE, but they don’t go far enough toward addressing the urgency of the current problem.

“We need to see significant recruitment by increasing the ratio of staff to residents to allow for 4.1 hours of care and we need to see it soon,” said Fougere. That type of change would cost tens of millions of dollars as opposed to the new funding announced so far.

同样，贾斯汀·特鲁多（Justin Trudeau）在去年八月在竞选活动中做出的承诺，当时自由领导人承诺，个人护理人员的最低工资为25美元，这是一项新法案，其中包含联邦标准的疗养院标准，以及在各省中共享30亿美元的承诺改善长期护理的容量（床）和质量（人员配备）。所有这些诺言仍然就是那样 - 承诺。

Asked what she would do if she were the minister for Seniors and Long-term Care in Nova Scotia, Yates had an immediate answer.

“Hire more staff so we could provide residents with 4.1 hours of care a day, increase the wages for CCAs, and provide vacation time.”

在今天的集会上，新斯科舍省有史以来第一位老年人和长期护理部长在上次省级竞选期间重复了进步保守派的较早诺言。

“We are going to put in legislation 4.1 hours of care per resident a day,” said Barbara Adams firmly. “That is the minimum and not a ceiling. But it won’t happen overnight.”

In fact, Adams wouldn’t even promise the workers at the rally that change to the Homes for Special Care Act will be introduced during the next session of the legislature. More consultation with stakeholders will be needed, she said. But the more probable reason is there will still be a shortage of adequately trained people willing to work in long-term care facilities unless working conditions and wages get better.

Growing the workforce may depend mostly on the results of upcoming contract negotiations which begin early next year with CUPE and with other health care unions. Money talks. And is a sign the work you do is valued. A lot of Nova Scotians know that and want to see these health care workers better compensated so they wouldn’t have to work more than one job..

“我妈妈已经在海洋视图三years and I’m here today supporting what I consider my extended family,” said Gary Siepierski. “The workers that give Mom the care she deserves and I can’t provide her. These people are cut from a special cloth.”