With an aging population and a shortage of healthcare workers in Canada, a health care assistant program can be a smart career choice for you. There is a shortage of healthcare assistants in the country, and it is expected to remain like this over the next couple of years; thus, the demand for workers in this profession continues to linger. The Job Bank data also shows that the shortage of healthcare workers that was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic will stay until 2031.
What Do Health Care Assistants Do?
Healthcare assistants are employed in nursing homes and hospitals mainly to help elderly and old patients. They usually work 35 to 40 hours per week, according to the Job Bank. Their duties mainly include bathing, grooming patients, assisting in feeding, supervising patient exercises, taking patients outside on wheelchairs, giving first aid, assisting patients in changing beds, transporting patients from one bed or department to another, preparing patients for operations, and taking blood pressure and temperature, etc.
In addition to these main duties, they also perform clerical work, such as carrying reports and patient samples from one department to another, sterilizing equipment, maintaining and assembling medical equipment, and maintaining inventory supplies.
What Do You Require To Be A Health Care Assistant?
Most colleges have different requirements according to the province and the program that you want to enroll in. However, most colleges require a high school diploma or a high school equivalency in some cases. Most colleges also require a certain English language proficiency during admission. If you are a domestic student, then you need to present proof of your grade 10 English graduation or other such requirements.
However, if you speak English as a second language, then you need to present a certain score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or any other such English language testing system. Some colleges, such as Edison, also accept the Canadian Language Benchmark Placement Test (CLB PT), the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP), and the Canadian Academic English Language Assessment (CAEL).
How Much Do Health Care Assistants Make?
The median salary of a health care assistant or health care aide is $25.00 per hour in British Columbia, which is higher than 22.00 per hour than the median salary of health care assistants in Canada. The low salary range is also higher in British Columbia. For instance, the low salary range is $20.00 in British Columbia, while it is $16.98 in Canada. However, the high salary range is the same at $26.00 in both British Columbia and Canada.
British Columbia is offering the third highest median salary to people who have a Health Care Aide Certificate – just behind the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory, which are offering $35.00 and $31.65, respectively. The median salary is $23.00 in Saskatchewan, $22.62 in Alberta, $22.00 in Ontario, $21.86 in Quebec, $20.74 in Prince Edward Island, $17.35 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $19.00 in Nova Scotia, $19.23 in Manitoba, $18.00 in New Brunswick, and $20.74 in Nunavut.
Labour Market Conditions Over The Next Couple Of Years
There will be a shortage of healthcare assistants across Canada over the next 7 years, according to the Job Bank. By 2021, there were 347,000 healthcare assistants working in the country, with a median age of 42 years. The retirement median age is 64 years.
Market studies that track vacancies and employment growth in specific sectors noted that the demand for healthcare assistants exceeded significantly compared to the supply from 2019 to 2021. What is more interesting is that the labour shortage that Canada saw in this sector during the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, according to the Job Bank analysis.
Just like so many other countries, the shortage of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canadians very hard. The government tried to manage the problem through different means; however, high-stress levels, high burnout rates, deaths due to COVID-19, and early retirement of workers continued to burden the health system of the country.
Conclusion
As discussed earlier in this blog, the prospects of a health care assistant diploma are bright not only in the current job market but also for the next couple of years. Moreover, some provinces and territories are offering handsome salaries as well. High demand and good salaries are some of the most important reasons why, at the very start, we said that a healthcare assistant is a smart career option for you.
Join the health care assistant diploma at Edison College
If you are looking to join a Health Care Assistant Diploma Program, then you can look for the details here, including the admission requirements. This program prepares students to take up jobs in a variety of work environments, such as long-term care facilities, group homes, acute care hospitals, assisted living facilities, etc. If you have questions or concerns, you can contact us today to learn more about this program.
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