WRH highlighting ‘critical need’ to fill diagnostic imaging jobs and get more students into the field

Source: Photo_Concepts/Connect Images via Getty Images Plus.

Officials at Windsor Regional Hospital are working to highlight the critical need for students to consider diagnostic imaging as a future career while actively recruiting to fill those positions within the hospital.

External Recruitment Coordinator Erin Hodgson said X-ray technicians, CT scan technicians, and nuclear medicine technologists are the positions the hospital has the most difficult time finding top talent for.

As part of a recruitment effort, the hospital is offering a $25,000 signing bonus for those in-demand positions, while there is also help available with relocation costs for anyone moving from outside the region.

One reason cited for the difficulty in filling those positions is that anyone locally pursuing these fields needs to leave the area to receive their two to three years of college education, with only a handful of schools offering programs in those fields.

Hodgson said the nuclear medicine technologist position is challenging to fill because there are only five schools in Canada, with just one in Ontario, that offer that program.

“The need goes up because you have a workforce that’s retiring out of these careers, but the number of students graduating out of these education streams, specifically for nuclear medicine tech, is not enough to meet the demand for the number of people who are leaving this role,” she said.

The salary for an X-ray, CT or nuclear medicine technologist starts at $36 to $37 per hour.

Hodgson said one of the big problems they’re trying to address is a lack of knowledge that these career paths exist.

“I’ve been working really closely with the Greater Essex County District School Board to develop programs with the Experiential Learning Team and their SHSM [Specialist High Skills Major] Team to get into the high schools and talk to students about careers exactly like this that are in healthcare, outside the scope of nursing and medicine that everybody knows about,” she said.

Hodgson said the demand for nuclear medicine is critical in Windsor-Essex, Ontario, and across Canada.

“We need the bodies; we need the people going into these education streams that they may not even be aware of. I think the initiative, especially put forth by Windsor Regional Hospital for recruitment and also education in the community, is working very hard every day,” she said.

The hospital is also launching a new job shadow program for anyone 16 years and older, and the diagnostic imaging department is an active part of the program. Click here to find a link to register for the program.

- Written by Rusty Thomson/AM800 News.