Half of B.C. health care assistants polled in a recent survey expressed a desire to quit their job in the next two years, threatening to worsen the care aide shortage the province is already facing.
The phone survey conducted in September asked 807 unionized care aides whether the last three years of work has made them more or less likely to leave their job in the next two years. Almost 50 per cent of them said recent experiences are pushing them to go.
“I can’t say I’m super surprised. It’s been a tough road and people are very stressed out,” said Mike Old, a spokesperson for the Hospital Employees’ Union, which commissioned the survey.
Health care assistants, or care aides, provide personal care to nursing home residents, home-care clients and hospital patients.
The surveyed workers said they’re exhausted and overworked, and that it’s taking a toll both on them and the patients they care for.
Half of respondents said they don’t have time to adequately meet the needs of their patients and 70 per cent said patients aren’t receiving sufficient attention or stimulation. More than 60 per cent said they regularly go home stressed, 80 per cent said they have been struck, scratched, spit on or otherwise attacked, and 45 per cent said a workplace injury has forced them to take time off.
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Old said a big problem their union members report is short staffing. According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, there were 1,455 care aide job vacancies in B.C. at the end of June. That’s significantly fewer than the 2,635 vacancies reported at the end of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but almost double the 960 listed at the end of 2019.
And the demand for care aides is only expected to grow. B.C has projected that 25 per cent of the population will be 65 or older and four per cent will be 85 or older by 2031. That’s already an enormous leap from just 20 years earlier, when 13.6 per cent of British Columbians were 65 or older and 1.5 per cent were 85 and older.
WorkBC estimated in its latest labour market outlook report that B.C. will have 18,324 care aide job openings between 2022 and 2032. Currently, there are 47,000 registered care aids in B.C.
Old admitted the province has taken considerable steps in recent years to begin to address the problem.
The biggest change came in September 2020, when B.C. launched the Health Careers Access Program, which provides employer-sponsored training to people interested in becoming care aides in exchange for them agreeing to work in a designated community for at least one year afterward. The program has turned out 6,546 care aides in the three years since then.
Old said the province also topped up wages during the pandemic and strengthened the labour code.
The main thing the Hospital Employees’ Union is calling for now is a return to an overarching provincial collective agreement for the caregivers. Such an agreement used to be in place before the BC Liberals were elected in 2001 and allowed the privatization of many care homes.
Old said as it stands now, just one-third of provincially-contracted care homes are under a provincial master agreement. He said this has resulted in a fragmented long-term care system, where there is no standard for wages, benefits, pensions or working conditions. For instance, in 2021 the median wage ranged from $18.30 to $25.33 an hour, according to B.C.’s labour market outlook report.
Standardizing this would create more stability for workers and better continuity of care for patients, Old said. His union is calling on the province to follow through on its 2020 election campaign promise to do just that.
Speaking to reporters about the survey results on Wednesday (Oct. 18), Health Minister Adrian Dix didn’t commit to a provincial collective agreement, but said his ministry is continuing to work with care aides.
“I appreciate that people are feeling the strain…but the actuals show that more and more people are becoming health care assistants,” he said.
Old said, to him, the survey is a clear cry for relief from care aides, and that more action is needed to keep them around.
“We don’t want to lose these skilled and experienced workers. We really need them.”
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