Sask. health authority introduces COVID-19 safety course for volunteers
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) requires people to take a new online course in infection prevention and control before they can volunteer in SHA facilities and programs.
“We’d like to bring them back because everybody is missing our volunteers. The staff, the clients and the residents,” said the SHA’s director of volunteer services, Bernie Doepker.
The course covers topics such as proper hand hygiene, how to wear a mask and how to put on and take off gloves safely.
At the start of the pandemic, the SHA dismissed all of its volunteers 65 and older as they were deemed a population more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Doepker says people volunteer at their own risk and the SHA assumes no responsibilities for mishaps and the new course is for their own safety.
Marjorie Bodnairchuk, a retired registered nurse and healthcare administrator who would often play the piano at the Herb Bassett Home in Prince Albert before the pandemic, said the course has good information, but may not be accessible for some volunteers.
The training requires logging into a website, reading, watching videos, using interactive tools and completing quizzes.
“People who aren’t comfortable with computers and websites and I think maybe they’ll just conclude their time with the Sask. Health Authority,” said Bodnairchuk.
Bodnairchuk says that would be disappointing as the residents of care homes and hospitals are going to be left with less visitor interaction and entertainment.
Doepker says the SHA is taking a cautious approach to resuming volunteer services and only allowing volunteers to deliver Meals on Wheels, virtual volunteers and outdoor entertainment.
“We are in desperate need of more volunteers,” said Doepker as many of the current volunteers who’ve been delivering Meals on Wheels need a break.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.