Nursing manager Natalie Romain and assistant director Nicole Chaput greeted the guests at a table set up by the main doors at the Pontiac Hospital, where they ran an open house Wednesday.

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Chaput, the primary intention of the open house was for recruitment and to give information to students, as the hospital is short on nurses and a variety of other jobs.

Romain explains one of the reasons for this issue.

“With the shrinking community, [there are] less people – less odds of having somebody that’s going to come back, stay in the Pontiac and work for us,” she said. “Sometimes you almost need to come from here to appreciate what we have in the Pontiac and to stay here.”

The two had information for the guests, which contained the positions which the hospital is looking to recruit, advantages of settling in the area and links for additional information. Other than nurses, the jobs in demand include social workers, dietary technicians and pharmacists.

In addition to the pamphlets, Romain and Chaput were also there to tell those that are interested how to go about landing a job at the hospital. This included where to apply, how to arrive for the interview and the tests they will be doing.

Part of the testing involves the assessment of the applicant’s French proficiency. The CISSSO has eased the standards for this assessment to be more attractive to their community.

“Why not give a person from here the opportunity to function with a lower standard for French?” Chaput said.

According to Romain, employees are permitted to write their notes in French or English but they have to be able to understand their patients. They also need to be able to read the “policies and procedures” the hospital has and understand what they are reading. All of the positions available require the same level of French.

The hospital has been in touch with about 40 students graduating this coming May from the University of Quebec Outaouais campus, Heritage College in Gatineau and Cégep de l’Outaouais. They tried to persuade these students to join the team in Pontiac.

“All of them have been spoken to by our higher-ups to see if they are interested, and only one of them showed interest, so that makes me a little nervous,” Romain said.

The obstetrics unit is currently closed for six months while the CISSSO tries to bulk up on nurses to keep the service running.

Romain estimated that they would need to significantly incresase their numbers in order to operate optimally.

“I would need 12 to 16 nurses,” Romain said.

There are currently three CPs on the floor, who are graduate nurses that are not yet licensed. One of them is full-time and two are part-time. They will write in March and obtain a licence come the end of April or May.

The grads are currently gaining their experience working on the floor. Romain will then send them to Gatineau to learn theory as well as the practical aspects of obstetrics before coming back to them.

Training takes around three months. Once they come back, they will still be supervised.

In addition, the hospital has been granted funds to renovate its endoscopy suite.

Work began in February 2019 and was split up into two phases. The first involved the completion of the procedure room and the gastroenterologist’s office, while the second extended the day surgery ward. New equipment was acquired, as well.

Construction should be done by the end of the summer, according to Romain. Open houses are held at the hospital during March break every year.

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