Are Personal Support Workers Healthcare's Unsung Heroes?

Personal support workers are heroes to their patients.  They regularly perform feats that are very impressive.  Personal support workers do everything from taking and checking vitals such as pulse and blood pressure, to bathing patients.
  
Personal support workers are caregivers who are in it for the long haul.  They are passionate about their jobs and their patients.  The typical personal support worker possesses ridiculous amounts of stamina and patience.  They need it to endure the gruelling repetition of the job.  They come to work each day, not looking for special rewards or recognition.  The results of what they do are reward enough for the typical personal support worker.  Their hard work and dedication shows through, in every shift.

Personal support workers work as a team, wherever their work is.  They support their colleagues and receive support from their colleagues in return.  This is especially important as they need the support to combat the stress, and in some cases, burnout rates.  

Personal support workers are heroes to their patients on a daily basis.

Tips on Avoiding Burnout for Personal Support Workers

We’ve all been there.  On the edge.  We’ve had enough.  In short, we feel burned out.  This is something that every personal support worker has gone through.  Here are some tips to avoid burnout as much as possible.

1)   Monitor Your Diet and Exercise:  We have to monitor our patient’s diet, yet we often don’t monitor our own diet, and our job requires us to have a certain level of fitness.  So I suggest strongly that you monitor your diet and engage in a regular exercise program.

2)   Get The Proper Amount Of Sleep:  This probably seems like something that should be intuitive but it’s not.  When we are young, we need less sleep, but as we get older we need more.  Yet sleep is the one thing we give up on a regular basis.  Sleep is the one thing that really helps you to rejuvenate.  Ensure that you always get enough sleep.

3)   Be Honest About How Many Days You Can Really Work:  Not everyone can do this type of work full time.  Maybe for you, it makes sense to work part time.  Also, due to factors like the economy, we don’t always take enough time off.  Please take as much time off as you need to.

4)   Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help At Work:  Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations at work.  If you find yourself in such circumstances, always ask for help.  There is no need to carry the entire load yourself.

Follow these tips and they will help you avoid burnout at work as much as possible.

New Employment Trends for Personal Support Workers

One thing we have noticed in the healthcare industry is the trend of large healthcare service providers using a larger number of personal support workers to do the same overall amount of work.  You may have noticed an increase in job postings for personal care workers with a lot emphasising their urgency in hiring new personal support workers.  In theory this increase in hiring is a good thing, but the flip side is that while new personal support workers are being hired, the hours they are receiving are not adding up to full-time hours.  Additionally, the hours that many established personal support workers are being scheduled for are consistently going down.  This seems to be a deliberate and concerted effort by large healthcare providers to ensure that their personal support worker staff does not qualify for full-time status.  Why would they do that? Will if you are an employer, it is advantageous to you to keep your employee base at a part-time level.  Why? Because part-time employees are essentially only entitled to their salary.  They are not entitled to consistent hours or anything else.  When an employee becomes full-time, they become entitled to a consistent set of minimum hours, in many cases, an increase in salary, and finally, they are entitled to benefits.  Thus, the reason why the trend among larger healthcare providers to hire more personal support workers at part-time hours, rather than fewer personal support workers at full-time hours.

Do Males Have a Harder Time Getting Hired as Personal Support Workers?

This is a question that I have been asked a few times in the last few months, due to the perception that personal support workers are predominantly female, and the job as a whole is perceived to be a “female position”.

From my perspective, in the workplace, there is a relatively high percentage of personal support workers, with the numbers I have noticed being as high as 25-30%.  Additionally, I have not heard any stories recently about males having a hard time getting hired as personal support workers.  Also, it is simply illegal for employers to discriminate in their hiring practices based on gender (although we know that this does occur).  The one piece of advice I would impart is that there are more candidates entering the field who are certified, so I would highly recommend that you complete an accredited course that has a good co-op component.  

The Controversy of Personal Support Workers Administering Medications

Personal support workers administering medications has always been a controversial issue.  The laws governing this issue have always been “fuzzy” at best.  After surveying a range of institutions, practicing personal support workers, and provincial and state personal support worker professional organizations, the following seems to be the closest to a consensus.

If you are a newly trained/registered personal support worker, administering medications is well beyond the scope of what you are ready for.  If you have been in the field as a practicing personal support worker for 3 or more years, you are in a position to administer medications, but only under the supervision of or in conjunction with an RPN or RN.

Having said that, the question has to be asked: Why would an employer want a personal support worker to administer medications?  Our survey showed that the major motivating factor is money. Simply put, it is cheaper to hire a personal support worker and add additional duties to their job than it is to hire an RPN or RN.  So what does a personal support worker do when faced with the requirement to administer medications?  These are the recommendations that came out of our survey:

·    Ask for appropriate supervision to be present when administering the medication

·    Never ever agree to mix the medication

·    Insist upon receiving proper training in administering medication before agreeing to do so

·    Make sure that you are completely comfortable with the entire process

·    If you are not comfortable with this requirement you are able to simply refuse to do it

Remember, administering medications is a very serious undertaking which can have very serious repercussions if not done correctly.  It is essential that as a personal support worker you are properly trained in how to do this and fully comfortable and confident in this before you undertake this task.  It is far better to be safe and cautious than to risk the life of a patient and your career as a personal support worker.

Health Minister Speaks About Home-Care Funding Increases, Meets with Personal Support Workers

Ontario’s Health Minister Deb Matthews recently visited Waterloo to promote the government’s decision to increase funding for home-based care services by four percent per year for three years.  However, in the town-hall meeting hosted by the Quality Care Alliance and the Service Employees International Union, Matthews was told by some personal support workers who work in the homes of clients who are elderly and disabled that they felt overworked and underappreciated.  Several personal support workers told the minister that they essentially felt like cheap labour.  One participant described herself as having the lowest paid college-educated job of all.

The issue of the wide discrepancy in pay between personal support workers in long-term-care facilities and those who work in home-based environments was brought up as well as the differences in the amount of time they have with clients.  Matthews acknowledged the discrepancies in both and noted that these were most likely the result of workers who work in the home-care environment not being unionized while those in long-term-care facilities are.  Matthews told the audience that she knew who was working their heart out in the healthcare system, and acknowledged that more needs to be done to support them.

Nominations Open for Personal Support Worker of the Year Award

Nominations are now open for the PSW of the Year Award.  With number of outstanding PSW’s in Ontario, this award will recognize the work of one exceptional PSW.  The award will be presented in October.  Nominees must work in the Province of Ontario, be nominated by a third party, and must consent to their nomination.  Nominations are evaluated on the following criteria:

·         Work History

·         Professional Knowledge

·         Advocacy

·         Patient Care

·         Going Beyond The Call of Duty

·         Team Support

Nominations must arrive at the offices of the PersonalSupport Network of Ontario no later than Friday, September 19, 2014.  For more information visit PSNO PersonalSupport Worker of the Year Award website.