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Horizon ups its recruitment game, says it’s paying off with 1,300 recruits in five months

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New Brunswick’s largest health authority is touting big recruitment numbers, saying its focus on attracting and hiring more healthcare workers, using a variety of incentives, is finally paying off.  

Horizon Health says between April 1 and August, it’s recruited nearly 1,300 healthcare workers – which is about what they usually recruit in one year.

That includes 240 registered nurses, 163 licensed practical nurses and 288 personal care attendants.

Their target is to hire 708 registered nurses in the 2022/23 fiscal year, which means they’re about a third of the way there.

“The traditional means of recruitment are certainly not as effective as they have in the past,” said Gail Lebel, Horizon’s chief human resources office. “If you’ve ever heard the term ‘post and pray’ I think that that was the more traditional way of recruitment. But recruitment has evolved into a more of a marketing and sales approach. There’s a huge use of social media.”

She said there has been a concerted effort to recruit in areas who have struggled with staffing shortages, more than others.

That includes Sackville, where the hospital’s emergency department has had to temporarily shut down several times over the course of the summer. Five registered nurses have been hired in that area.

Since April 1, fourteen nurses have come out of retirement to help with the situation too.

When asked when people will see a change in the accessibility of services, interim CEO Margaret Melanson said it should be soon.

“I’m hopeful within the next several weeks,” she said. “I’m certainly hopeful that it will be as soon as that and not extend beyond that.”

But Lebel acknowledged the current situation will take much longer to repair completely.

“From a recruitment perspective we will be continuing our efforts and introducing new recruitment efforts and really focusing on increasing our recruitment…but it will take several years and new candidate streams in order to satisfy the overall need,” she said.

Their intention is to continue this effort, and hire in “large volumes” to help with the need.

Retention of current healthcare workers is also a struggle. Many healthcare workers have reported feeling burned out, and some have left the job altogether.

“There certainly is an issue with moral in our facilities and I believe it’s for a variety of factors,” Melanson said.

She cited the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the requirement to wear personal protective equipment and infectious control protocols that have been in place.

“That has fatigued our staff, absolutely. Aside from that we know that these staffing issues in terms of the vacancies have put pressure on our staff, for certain.”

Melanson says they’ve committed to better communication between management and staff and looking at other measures – like flexibility and work-life balance – to help staff feel better supported. And Horizon is currently reviewing the infectious control protocols to see if they can lesson any restrictions and allow staff more flexibility in terms in the way they work.

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