Health care assistants are in demand, and without them, the enormous health care system in Canada is simply incomplete. With the growing health care needs and an aging population, the prospects of health care assistants are very good in most of the provinces. So if you are planning to join the health care industry, you can consider joining a health care assistant program.
Who Is A Health Care Assistant?
Health care assistants give their clients vital assistance in their daily lives. They assist with toileting, dressing, grooming, feeding, bathing, and other personal hygiene duties. Mobility and exercise may be additional duties, and health care assistants are frequently required to communicate client observations and concerns to nurses and other medical experts. Health care assistants work in mental health facilities, hospitals, continuing care facilities, client homes, and establishments that mentor other health care assistants and students.
Why Does Canada Need More Health Care Assistants?
The demand for health care assistants is on the rise because of several factors. Baby boomers (people who were born from 1945 to 1965) make up a significant share of the Canadian population, and they are now fast retiring as they reach the age of 65 years. This phenomenon is expected to continue in the next couple of years and fuel the demand for health care professionals, including the health care assistants.
Another important factor is the continuous rise in the percentage of people who are living over 100 years of age. Due to better health care facilities and other such factors, Canadians are living longer than ever; thus this growing old population also needs more health care facilities. To meet this growing need of health care professionals, the government of Canada welcomes thousands of workers every year, but despite these efforts, there is still a massive shortage in different sectors.
Health care workers in Canada have faced tremendous challenges in recent years, which has resulted in historically high levels of turnover, absenteeism, and stress. Patients who are facing lengthy wait times for surgeries, ER closures, and trouble getting family health services are also being impacted by these workforce issues, according to the Government of Canada.
Working as a health care assistant could be the ideal choice for you if you’re interested in a career in the quickly expanding healthcare sector or if you want to work with the elderly, who make up a significant portion of the Canadian population.
What Are Job Prospects Of Health Care Assistants?
Job prospects for health care assistants or health care aides are either ‘very good’ or ‘good’ in all the provinces, according to Job Bank. For instance, for the next three years, the prospects are very good in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon Territory. Whereas Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, and Quebec have good job prospects for health care assistants.
By 2021, there were 347,000 health care aides employed in the country with a median age of 42 years. By 2031, a total of 191,000 new job openings are expected to come while there would be 170,100 new job seekers who could fill these jobs, according to Job Bank. This means that there is a shortage of health care assistants, and it will continue over the next several years; thus, a career as a health care assistant is a lucrative one.
Join Edison College’s Health Care Assistant Diploma
Edison College has a 27-week Health Care Assistant Diploma Program. This health care assistant program prepares students for client care in a variety of environments, such as personal care, helping with feeding, helping with medicine, and other such skills related to acute care and palliative care. Students in this diploma are also trained in promoting and maintaining health and safety standards so that they can provide the best care to their clients once they are graduated. Health care assistants usually work with multidisciplinary teams, mostly under the guidance of senior doctors and other senior health care professionals.
Conclusion
As we have discussed above, the prospects of health care assistants are not bright over the next several years. The expanding health care industry needs more health workers in almost all the sub-sectors, and caregivers are no different. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is funding various programs in the health care industry, due to which new hospitals and other health care facilities are being constructed in the county. All of these new public sector investments will contribute to the demand for health care assistants in a variety of ways.
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