Ontario Training Thousands of New Long-Term Care Staff

[Stratford, ON]— Today, Matthew Rae, MPP for Perth-Wellington joined the Honourable Stan Cho, Minister of Long-Term Care, at Spruce Lodge to announce that the Government of Ontario is investing more than $100 million to train more than 32,000 new personal support workers and nurses in long-term care over the next three years. The investments are part of the government’s Your Health plan to recruit and retain tens of thousands of long-term care staff over the coming years.

“Our seniors built the communities and province we live in today,” said MPP Rae. “They deserve the highest quality of care. This additional investment in training more health care workers will benefit long-term care providers across Perth-Wellington and Ontario.”

Ontario is investing $94.5 million over three years to extend the Preceptor Resource and Education Program for Long-Term Care. Since launched in 2021, the program has already helped 500 long-term care homes provide clinical placements for over 17,000 nursing and personal support worker students. With the new investment, the program now aims to train more than 3,000 new preceptors and support 31,000 new clinical placements by 2027.

“Our government is fixing long-term care by training, hiring and retaining thousands of health care workers to provide high-quality care for residents,” said Stan Cho, Minister of Long-Term Care. “We’re investing in programs that are building a pipeline of talent for the future and giving them more hands-on clinical training so our long-term care residents get the high-quality care they deserve.”

Clinical placements are key to providing nursing and personal support worker students with hands-on experience onsite in long-term care homes under the supervision of preceptors — experienced staff who are trained for this role. Positive clinical placement experiences drive recruitment, as students often take jobs in the homes where they complete their placements. Meanwhile, becoming a preceptor gives existing long-term care staff the opportunity for career development and growth.

Ontario is also investing nearly $11 million over three years to expand Living Classrooms, a program that helps students train to become PSWs on-site in local long-term care homes. With this investment, the program will double the number of living classrooms from 20 to 40, which will support the training of up to 1,300 new personal support workers by 2026.

Unlike traditional PSW training programs, where students start with a classroom education and then move on to clinical placements, living classrooms integrate education into a long-term care home. Students alternate between in-class learning — delivered in the home or nearby — and applying what they learn as they work with residents within the home. The program is especially beneficial to rural, remote, and northern regions, as homes can grow their own staff and students can train without having to leave their communities.

The government is fixing long-term care to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care and quality of life they need and deserve. The plan is built on four pillars: staffing and care; quality and enforcement; building modern, safe, and comfortable homes; and connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need.

QUICK FACTS

PREP LTC is delivered on behalf of the province by the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (Ontario CLRI) at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging, in collaboration with the Ontario CLRI teams at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education and Bruyère Research Institute.
The expanded Living Classroom program will be delivered on behalf of the province by the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging in collaboration with the Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators.
Ontario is offering incentives of up to $25,400 to students and recent graduates of personal support worker education programs to launch careers in long-term care homes and in the home and community care sector.
The Ontario government is investing up to $4.9 billion to create thousands of new positions for personal support workers and nurses in long-term care.
Through a $6.4 billion investment, Ontario now has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in development across the province. This will help increase overall bed capacity, address long-term care waitlists and hallway health care, and provide our seniors the care they deserve.