Facing another summer of understaffed, overworked nurses and challenges scheduling holidays, Seaforth Community Hospital will be erecting an electronic sign on Highway 8 trying to recruit more RNs.
“We’re going to put up one of those backlit signs saying, ‘If you’re a nurse, come on down,’” said Andrew Williams, CEO of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance at a recent meeting of the Seaforth Local Advisory Committee.
“We’re really looking at any way to get people - we’re in major recruitment mode and open to any creative ideas,” he said.
Seaforth hospital’s administrator Mary Cardinal said the Alliance is already aggressively recruiting nurses with its website, at health fairs and through nursing schools.
“We work closely with the nursing programs at Western, Fanshawe and Conestoga and we’re quite open to nursing student placements,” she said, adding that a recent placement with a nursing student from Ryerson University was a great success.

Cardinal said Seaforth is “challenged” in both the emergency and inpatient departments and actively recruiting regular part-time staff.
Sue Veraart, Alliance recruiter for nurses and other hospital staff, said during a phone interview that Seaforth Community Hospital currently needs seven part-time RNs, a higher number than was needed last summer when the hospital was understaffed. Read more