by Tara Sottile
Most of the COVID-19 deaths in Ontario have happened in retirement facilities with an assistant living floor across the province. Shanelle has worked at a long-term care home in Durham Region in Ontario as a concierge for a few years, but because of the pandemic, she’s having to do the jobs of Personal Support Workers and Nurses.
Shanelle explained to me what working at one of these retirement facilities in Oshawa is like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have refrained from using Shanelle’s last name to allow her to speak freely about her current work experience.
What kind of impact has COVID-19 had on your job?
It’s made it worse…(our facility) definitely jumped in before some of the mandates were made. Like just recently, they made the mandate that agency workers, people who aren't our employees but work for different agencies who come in to support homes who need people like extra people, they're only allowed to now work at one specific home to prevent cross-contamination. They also have ordered that all health care workers are only allowed to work at one home as well, too. Well, that's too late, in my opinion, because we started doing that way before to prevent cross-contamination from happening. So, all employees, if you worked at one or more retirement home, you had to choose which one you're working at. So, because of that, we lost a lot of staff members. So, they had to pick a home and some other people chose to pick a home that paid them more than what we pay because we don't pay a lot.
Does the home you work at currently have an outbreak of the virus?
No. We're one of the homes that has nothing. So, we're so lucky. The only thing was a few weeks ago, we had one employee who was tested positive and that was a whirlwind because everyone was calling me freaking out.
How do you feel doing the job of a nurse or PSW when you aren’t one?
I think in the moment, right now, I'm overwhelmed because of being both a student full-time and now my hours have increased to full-time, plus juggling all these random tasks now that I have to do. Plus, there's the looming thing in the back of my mind of COVID coming in. So, there's a lot to juggle in your head. But usually, with me, I'm a person that just keeps pushing forward and doesn't really process my emotions, which isn't the best thing, but that's what I do. So, I guess I feel more than anything that I know I'm responsible to care for (families’) loved ones, and do everything in my power possible to keep them safe and keep myself safe. Because I've known these people, I've been working for eight years with these people. And if it was my grandmother, I would want someone to do the same thing for her that I'm doing for these people.
What is one thing you want others to know about the situations people are facing in these homes?
I wish every single person could volunteer, enter a retirement home and have their eyes open to seeing what retirement life really is like in this day and age in 2020. Because it's not what you think and there's no way of, you know, fully explaining the depths of what you experience as a healthcare worker and unregulated healthcare worker in a retirement home. There's no way, there is too much to consume.
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