N.B. Increasing Care Hours For Nursing Home Residents

New Brunswick is boosting care hours for nursing home residents but at least one group says it does not go far enough.

On Tuesday, the province announced that hours of care would increase from 3.1 hours per resident to 3.2 hours in October and to 3.3 hours in April 2022.

Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch said this increase in care hours is needed in New Brunswick.

“Nursing home residents have greater needs today than in the past. Our network of nursing homes is now providing services to residents with more severe cognitive and physical needs,” Fitch said in a news release.

The president of the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions said they welcome any increase to care hours in nursing homes.

But Sharon Teare said this increase will really do nothing to increase the quality of life for residents.

“To break it down, that’s an average of less than 10 minutes per resident per day,” Teare said in a phone interview.

“It may be to comb their hair properly, it may give you extra time to go get them an extra drink, maybe give a shave to our gentleman residents.”

Teare said the boost in hours will also do nothing to help address staff retention and recruitment issues faced at New Brunswick nursing homes.

She would have liked to see a long-term plan to increase the number of care hours to at least 4.0 hours per resident.

“I think that you would have seen individuals that would have said ‘OK, here’s a commitment, this is what we’re going to do’ and staff would gradually come in,” said Teare.

According to the province, the last increases were from 2.8 to 3.0 hours of care in 2006 and to 3.1 hours of care in 2008.

“We’re failing our seniors desperately and we have over the last 20 years, so it’s time government does what it needs to do and to implement a national standard of care to ensure that our residents receive a quality of life with dignity and respect,” said Teare.