The vice president and chief nursing executive at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance says the extra staff in place at the hospitals will be a big help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lisa Northcott told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday that three retired nurses and six retired support staff are voluntarily coming to help with the virus response. That's on top of the 40 nurses who have been redeployed to new areas after non-emergency or elective surgeries were cancelled.
CKHA announced on Monday that it is welcoming back retired nurses and adding 10 nursing students and 10 graduate nurses to add capacity and help fight COVID-19.
Northcott said hospital staffing levels are comfortable currently and the hospitals are ready to handle the surge if necessary. CKHA continues looking for more graduate nurses and retired nurses but Northcott said the staffing pool is robust right now. She added it's a guessing game and what might be adequate staffing levels now could change very quickly.
Northcott said she is confident in the skill of the graduate nurses because they have been working side by side with veteran nurses over the past three months, are well trained, and their performance has been excellent. The graduate nurses will now go from temporary workers to full time employees and Northcott said all nurses including those who are older and at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 will be well protected with surgical masks and face shields.
Northcott said the unions have been very supportive of the new hires and she thanks all of the new staff for "answering the bell."
Simon Duchesne, a second-year nursing student at the University of Windsor, said he wanted to help because he's healthy and it's good experience. He added he'll be on-call doing non-certified jobs like walking patients and helping wherever he can.
Chatham-Kent Public Health reported on Tuesday there's another positive case of COVID-19 locally, bringing the total up to 17. Public health officials said the latest victim is a woman in her 60s who was infected by having close contact with someone who already had the virus. She is now in self-isolation.