A strategy at Bluewater Health, initiated as a post-pandemic recovery plan, appears to be building confidence that efforts are being made to improve the workplace setting.
The hospital network recently highlighted its Building Blue strategy during its annual meeting, held last week for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Bluewater Health President and CEO Paula Reaume-Zimmer said the Building Blue Strategy is a health human resource strategy for staff, to strengthen recruitment and retention efforts.
"It's really feeling like it's building confidence of our team," she said. "That we are expanding opportunities to improve their workplace setting to take whatever pressure we can off of them and to make sure that when they come into our organization at Bluewater Health they feel really well supported, and they have all of the resources that they need to do the best care that they can."
The strategy includes various initiatives or branches that have varied in start times. Reaume-Zimmer described the current stage of the strategy as being in "full force."
Statistics on how many new employees Bluewater Health has attracted post-pandemic have not been shared. Reaume-Zimmer said it's still too early to give a proper figure.
Many of the initiatives have received support from the Ministry of Health in terms of incentives.
"Such as the supervised practice experience and that's focused on the internationally educated nurses; and our extern program which is focused on students in the health care setting who are able to be hired sooner and in different settings, but still being able to contribute to health care; and our additional staff," she said. "So it certainly helps to support the resilience of our existing staff when they have an extra pair of hands who are able to help out."
Reaume-Zimmer said moving forward with the strategy, Bluewater Health will continue to implement initiatives.
"...And hopefully, continue to introduce new ones as new opportunities arise," she said. "But whatever we can do to support the staff and to really make sure that people who are looking for careers still understand and appreciate that there's so much reward in the health care setting."
Other highlights discussed during Bluewater Health's annual meeting were appointments to the board of directors, ongoing partnerships, and the recently completed helipad project.
Construction of the helipad at the Sarnia site was completed in September 2022 and the hospital recently received certification for night use in early June 2023 to become operational 24/7.
The annual report can be found on Bluewater Health's website.
With files from Melanie Irwin
