Building Strength of Health Care Teams
HHR planning is as an essential factor in the delivery of critical care services.
Designed to create accessible critical care nurse training, ensure the development of quality work environments and ensure a sustainable critical care nursing workforce.
The Ontario Critical Care Workforce Advisory Committee (OCCWAC)
The Ontario Critical Care Workforce Advisory Committee is an advisory body, focused on identifying and addressing system level issues pertaining to critical care health human resources (HHR) within Ontario. This group focuses on HHR priorities relating to recruitment and retention, including, training, wellness, models of care, practice standards and other processes that enable the critical care workforce. Comprised of Hospital CNEs representing the 5 Ontario Regions, with a focus on inter-professional teams and critical care directors ensuring representation from adult, paediatrics, community, and academic centres.
Critical Care Nurse Training Fund (CCNTF) & Internship and Career Pathway Program (ICPP)
The annual Critical Care Nurse Training Fund (CCNTF) is a strategic initiative that supports hospitals in offsetting the costs of training adult, paediatric, and neonatal critical care nurses to meet provincially recognized standards. By completing training aligned with these provincial standards, nurses are equipped with the competencies needed to respond to rapidly evolving clinical situations, anticipate patient needs, and provide confident, high-quality care at the bedside.
The Critical Care Internship and Career Pathway Program (ICPP) is designed to support the transition of novice Registered Nurses and Registered Respiratory Therapists (with less than six months of critical care experience) into critical care roles. The program offers a structured blend of supernumerary clinical hours and mentored experiences over a period of up to six months. Throughout the internship, participants engage in didactic learning, collaborative competency development, and receive dedicated support focused on mental health, resilience, and managing moral distress.
Hospitals may apply for support through the Critical Care Nurse Training Fund (CCNTF) and the Internship and Career Pathway Program (ICPP) via an annual application process, typically held between November and December. The number of funded positions and the level of financial support are determined based on the available funding each year as well as the volume and eligibility of applications received.
For more information, please contact CCSO at ntf@ccso.ca
Critical Care Workforce Profile (CCWP)
The 2022 Critical Care Workforce Profile survey collected information from all critical care units (Adult, Paediatric, and Neonatal) to better understand the ongoing challenges in the workforce and Health Human Resource (HHR) planning as the health care system begins the recovery phase from the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the critical care workforce through comprehensive data informs staffing planning activities, informs effective staffing practices, and can enhance retention and recruitment strategies to promote a resilient critical care workforce for the province to meet current and future system needs.