OMNI homes say PSW initiative is enhancing resident care
Bolstered nutritional care, walking programs and one-to-one time amongst key benefits
Wednesday January 13, 2010 -- Deron Hamel
Staff members at OMNI Health Care-owned long-term care homes say they have enhanced resident care during the past year through the province’s personal support worker (PSW) initiative.

Funding from the province has resulted in more PSW hours available at Ontario homes. OMNI homes have directed this funding to several areas to enhance resident care.

With more available hours, Margaret Cornell, a PSW at Willows Estate in Aurora, has been bringing snacks to residents needing additional food each day.

She explains the difference this has made.

“There’s one resident who is diabetic so I would make sure I would give her a snack, she really likes it when she gets a snack. If I miss her, she will come to me,” says Cornell.

As a measure of success, Cornell says she will often spot a resident who didn’t eat their food during a mealtime, but when she brings her cart over to the person they’ll take an item.

“That’s what I would call a success,” says Cornell. “When I see people asking me for certain things or when I know people like bananas, for example, and I can bring them a banana.”

Almonte Country Haven, a home located in the Ottawa area, has bolstered its walking, nutritional-care and bathing programs, thanks to the additional 4 1/2 PSW hours the home has received, since the initiative was launched a year ago.

Enhancements to these programs have enabled staff members to spend more time with residents, notes Angie Acheson, the home’s life enrichment co-ordinator.

“The whole program has allowed a lot more one-to-one time with residents,” says Acheson.

“It has become easier to be resident focused than task oriented with that 4 1/2 hours. For us in long-term care that is huge.”

More one-to-one time for residents and an easier-to-manage workload have been the benefits Village Green, located in Greater Napanee, has seen from the PSW initiative, says Jackie Maxwell, the home’s director of care.

Residents, she notes, are benefiting from an extra staff member working the 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. shift, and with the extra help staff members are now less rushed providing care.

“There’s someone available to sit one-on-one with residents, (and) we don’t have to take someone off the floor now,” says Maxwell. “Residents are now able to have (more) bath time and that’s huge.”

The PSW initiative is part of the first round of funding, as promised in the 2008 provincial budget, to increase the average paid hours of direct daily care in Ontario long-term care homes to 3 1/2 hours by 2011.

The funding is also expected to see the creation of 2,500 PSW positions and 2,000 nurses in the Ontario’s long-term care homes by 2012.

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