As we get older how and where we spend our time changes. Unfortunately as our parents age we spend more time in hospitals at the doctors office and in nursing homes. Sadly the experience is often not a very pleasant one. The healthcare system is under stress and nursing homes are often understaffed. In Ontario today, the ratios of staff to residents is simply too high to provide safe care with dignity. On Day Shift, Personal support workers can be responsible for the care of as many as a dozen residents. A nurse can be assigned monitoring, medications and treatments for as many as 50 residents. On other shifts those ratios easily double. That means that every minute of the day they are working against the clock.
Last year thousands of people took a six minute challenge to get dressed and ready for the day. The #6minchallenge, highlighting the amount of time a PSW had to get each resident up and prepared for breakfast. Unifor asked individuals to set the timer when they woke up, and see what they could do in six minutes. If you would like more information please click on the following link. https://www.caretakestime.ca/