The intensive recruitment effort for administrative officers and nursing assistants is bearing fruit: as of Wednesday, applications for admission to the two accelerated training programs exceeded the objectives set by Quebec.
In total, the government received 7,323 applications for admission to the accelerated practical nurse training program. The one for administrative officers in clinical services attracted 3335 volunteers.
This means that the enthusiasm meets the government’s expectations. 1er December, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, and his colleague from Education, Jean-François Roberge, announced the creation of scholarships of $ 20,000 to attract candidates for training as licensed practical nurses and of $ 4,000 to recruit 3000 administrative agents.
All the requests received since “are currently being analyzed by the training centers and the establishments with a view to retaining those which could lead to an official registration for the training program and the scholarship program”, wrote Marjorie Larouche, spokesperson at Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), in response to a request for information from the Duty.
“A cohort [de futurs agents administratifs] officially started in the Gaspé, but the other cohorts will be phased out after the holiday season, ”she added. The first cohorts of future nursing assistants should begin towards the end of January, according to the MSSS.
The addition of administrative officers to the network was part of the plan announced by Quebec on September 23 to keep nurses in the public system and to convince thousands of others to return. “There are a lot of nurses who have told us, ‘I spend 30% of my time filling out paperwork.’ We would prefer that we spend that time caring for patients. So we are going to hire administrative agents. It will free up nurses’ time, ”Prime Minister François Legault said at the time.
He then undertook to train 3000 of these professionals, who were to be available to work in the network “from spring 2022”. He also mentioned that the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, was working on “an acceleration of the training of nursing assistants. “
More success than bonuses
The plan put forward by Quebec in September also contained financial measures: bonuses to encourage nurses to return to the public network or to accept full-time positions.
The most recent update, sent on December 9, reports 1,356 hires in the network thanks to these bonuses.
For the moment, however, the premiums are not attractive to nurses in the private sector. The recruitment results are also well below the hopes of Minister Dubé, who believed he could attract 4,000 people in “a very short term”.
Earlier this month, the government upped the ante to attract nurses to the regions, increasing its attraction bonuses to $ 30,000 in remote areas. Initially, the attraction bonus for employees in remote areas was $ 18,000. Quebec therefore increased it to $ 12,000 the first year, then to $ 12,000 the following year.