For three weeks in October, SafeCare BC invited long-term care providers to participate in a survey on the sector’s human resource challenges and their potential impact on workplace safety.  More than 90 homes responded, and we are pleased to summarize the results.

• 60% said their care home has a shortage of workers. The challenge appeared particularly acute on Vancouver Island (78%) and the Interior (65%).
• Over 70% say their care home is short-staffed always (5%), often (14%) or sometimes (52%). Only 27% say they are rarely short-staffed, and 1% say never.
• 44% of employers believe lack of available staff has an extreme (21%) or moderate (23%) impact on workplace health and safety at their site; 30% feel lack of staff has ‘somewhat’ of an effect; 24% say slightly; 2% say not at all.
• More than 75% of employers believe they will not have an adequate supply of workers over the next 3-5 years (30%) or are unsure (47%). Only 23% believe they will have an adequate supply of workers over the next 3-5 years.
• Of those with a shortage of workers, the positions employers identified as most available are care aides/health care assistants (66%), LPNs (47%), and RNs (47%).

The results confirm what we have been hearing anecdotally. There is a staffing shortage in the long-term care sector and the perception that this shortage hurts workplace safety.

Preventing workplace injuries and keeping our existing long-term care workers healthy and safe will help us address labour shortages in this critically important sector. We look forward to sharing these results with senior care stakeholders and extending our safety programs to the home support sector in 2017.