Nursing home resident says support workers 'being run off their feet,' need more staffing
Resident calls for law on minimum staff-to-resident ratios in long-term care facilities
A CBC Marketplace investigation revealed staff at a long-term care facility struggled to keep up with care needs, and one east Windsor man says it's a staffing problem.
Victor Maurice, 69, is a resident in an east Windsor nursing home, living with a number of physical challenges like partial paralysis and an amputated leg.
It's the best facility he's been in, Maurice said, but the personal support worker (PSW) to resident ratio is still too low.
"The staff takes excellent care of me, even though it's really hard for them to give excellent care, because there's not enough of them," said Maurice.
During the day, he said there are 10 to 15 residents per personal support worker. For the night shift, that ratio increases to 30 residents per worker in his wing.
"Well, one support worker cannot take good care of that many people. There's not enough minutes in the hour," said Maurice. "I notice sometimes they're almost being run off their feet, trying to take care of everybody."
Currently, there are no legislated minimum staff-to-resident ratio requirements for long-term care facilities in Ontario.
Maurice said there needs to be a law in place.
He describes seeing staff skipping lunch breaks to care for residents and on top of that, doing work for free. After a long eight hours taking care of people, Maurice said many stay late to finish paperwork — unpaid — before they leave for home.
After a while, the stress that comes with the workload start to get to personal support workers, and he said they quit.
"I'm glad I'm a resident, and not an employee."
With files from Vince Robinet