Health reinforcements: administrative agents who have no place

Offices and work areas were not suited to accommodate a surplus of staffexplains Tamara Espera, herself an administrative officer and union representative at the CIUSSSIntegrated university health and social services center of the East-of-the-Island-of-Montreal. Some people had received access codes, but they weren’t working. We lacked preparationshe adds.

The case reported by Ms. Espera is not unique, recognizes Chantal Marchand of the Association of Managers of Health and Social Services Establishments (AGESSS). Indeed, it is variable geometry from one region to another, the capacity to accommodate administrative agents. It takes a lot of teamwork to find space and equipment for them. There may be plenty of reasons to explain these difficulties, but it is not a question of bad faith, on the contrary!

Other cohorts are expected to arrive in the field by summer. Several stakeholders are asking the government to ensure that everything is put in place to improve their integration.

Basics: knowing what to do

For example, Tamara Espera regrets that the workload of new agents is not yet sufficiently defined. Some trainees reportedly said not really knowing what to do as part of their future duties, so quickly they were deployed after their eight-week training.

Is the job description clear? Have we taken the time to take a good look at all of this? asks Ms. Marchand. However, she assures us that he don’t think that the network doesn’t need these people. She remains convinced that the government was right to launch such a program, in the midst of a labor shortage.

For us, the arrival of administrative staff is a good ideaalso says the vice-president of the FSSS-CSN, Josée Marcotte. We’ve been asking for it for a long time! However, it is done in an improvised way. We do not feel that the network has prepared, because the government has not taken the time to discuss with the trade union organizations [afin de connaître les besoins].

Calls for better planning

The accelerated study program was launched last December by Quebec to relieve nursing staff of administrative tasks. Bursaries of $4,000 were distributed in all regions of the province to encourage registrations, in exchange for employment for at least one year in the network.

New officers must, among other things, greet patients, compile information, complete files and draw up an inventory of the equipment needed by nurses. There should be better planning to properly accommodate this staff, thinks Josée Marcotte. She wants the government to put in place the winning conditions to promote their retentionotherwise she fears that new agents will leave their jobs after a year.

Me, I’m hopeful that things will work outconcludes Ms. Espera. When the first agents arrived in March, it was chaos! But we will work to ensure that it follows its course, as we did for the new beneficiary attendants. Over time, we adapted.

However, she asks managers to also ensure that older agents will not be bullied in the process. Some are still on a call list waiting for permanent employment, while being responsible for supervising new ones.

Welcoming employees well helps retain them, and all agents will be needed to deal with a potential seventh wave of COVID-19, believes Chantal Marchand. We are going to hope that everything is ready for the fall. Rest assured that the managers are very concerned about this and are working hard to make it happen.