Abstract

Introduction - Durham Region reflects on the impacts of COVID-19 and plans recovery, the to ensure that best practices are employed through promoting the Region’s efforts to improve recruitment and retention of staffing in long-term care (LTC), as well as  the implementation of needs assessment and educational outreach activities to current long-term care staff and trainees.

Objective – To explore the healthcare workers’ perception of working in long-term care (, and to determine -what factors and attributes help attract nursing and personal support worker (PSW) students to pursue career in LTC setting, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Methodology – Online surveys through  Survey Monkey will be administered to at least 50 healthcare workers (ie. registered nurses; registered practical nurses; and PSW etc), as well as at least 50 nursing students from Ontario Tech University and 50 PSW students from Durham College. Based on the results from surveys, a series of educational outreach activities will be designed to raise awareness about the value of working in LTC, de-mystifying the stigma about long-term care workforce and educate on the attributes of working in long-term care.  After the implementation of educational outreach activities, focus groups will be conducted with 5 to 10 healthcare providers and PSW in LTC, as well as 5 to 10 nursing and PSW students from Ontario Tech University/Durham College to explore their knowledge uptake, and potential change in their perception of working in LTC.

Implications – The human resource planning in LTC has  not been examined over time and considering the COVID-19 pandemic, this scenario has aggravated the issue.  Experts have criticized staffing standards in Ontario as inadequate and this research will impact future staffing recruitment in long-term care by examining the recommendations based on outreach activities and survey results.

Conclusion – Although several studies have found that increased staffing in long term care homes is associated with better quality of care, the amount of research conducted in this area  is scarce.  This study assesses the perception of health care workers and prospective nursing/ PSW students regarding working in LTC and will contribute to the advancement of evidence-based research in this field during the current and future pandemic.