In the middle of the crisis – the Västernorrland region invests millions in the brand

PR campaign to improve Västernorrland’s reputation and attract staff: “Very strange”

ÖRNSKÖLDSVIK. A consultant with a top salary and investment in the “image of us”.

This is how the crisis region Västernorrland wants to get more people to want to be employed in healthcare.

– Invest in our staff instead of advertising, says nurse Katrin.

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Healthcare in Västernorrland does not seem to be on the road to recovery.

Recently, a historic bottom result was reached: in the next two years, the region is in the red by one billion.

– Something is wrong, notes Ingela Korhonen, assistant nurse in the heart department and the infection clinic at Örnsköldsvik hospital.

She is also a protection agent for Municipal and leisure politicians in the local Health Care Party, which criticizes the cuts in the region.

For example, by Sollefteå Hospital which is now planned to be slaughtered even more, despite years of loud protests surrounding the closure of BB there.

Communicator’s salary: 920,000

A rampant cost for Västernorrland is hired relay staff – and this is where the region’s big investment in the brand comes into play.

The governing politicians in S and M have decided to spend one million kroner this year on the region’s “tone and appearance”.

In addition, there is SEK 920,000 in annual salary for a new communicator who will work with “employer branding”, the employer brand. The job involves producing positive messages and films for, among other things, fairs and social media.

– If you instead took this salary and put it on us in the staff, it could be SEK 500 per employee, states Ingela Korhonen.

The Health Care Party (SJVP), SD and V have been critical. Other parties were behind the brand millions.

Critical to negative image in the media

Elina Backlund Arab (S), chairwoman of the Health and Medical Board, believes that two million is a small amount in comparison with the hundreds of millions that the region wants to invest in, for example, further education and ob-reimbursements for staff.

She does not want to comment on details about the salary for the communicator and believes that it is part of a larger package that will make the Västernorrland region more attractive to work in.

– It’s about lifting up our own staff, getting to tell them what they think is good about their job and letting them be the front people. Then you need someone to coordinate and maintain that work, she says.

According to the region, negative reports in the media have tarnished Västernorrland’s image.

– There are many people I meet who feel tremendous sadness and frustration that they love their job, go to their job every day and do their best for the residents of Västernorrland, but that image must not appear either, says Elina Backlund Arab (S) .

– We should be able to be honest that everything is not gold and green forests, but there are also things that are very good, because who wants to come and work in a workplace where everything is bad? she says.

“People cry at work”

“Betting on our image will contribute to making it easier for us to attract and retain employees,” according to the protocol from the regional council.

It is stated that the employees in the region will now become “proud ambassadors”.

Care workers who recruit new staff also receive a recruitment bonus of SEK 60,000.

– They keep saying that we employees must speak well of the brand, we shouldn’t speak negatively because then no one will want to work here. It gets very weird. How to solve problems if you don’t even admit they exist? says Ingela Korhonen, assistant nurse and politician for the Health Care Party.

– I think the problems are quite big, if you cry at work, go home completely exhausted, when we have staff who are 25 years old and cannot work full time. Then you are asked to reduce working hours instead and pay for it yourself.

At the heart department in Örnsköldsvik, stress is something that affects all the employees we meet.

Here, assistant nurses and nurses skip lunch or mic their lunch box in three rounds because they have to run away on the alarm. Sometimes they work double shifts – almost 15 hours straight.

– Three shifts in two days is not unusual. Then you’re quite mushy in the head afterwards, says Katrin, a new nurse.

– Often you are too kind and say yes.

She describes how the job has become tougher, with heavier, sicker patients. Many who are admitted here have multiple illnesses at bottom.

Sometimes it “crashes”, as they say in the department.

This means that the stress becomes so great that you don’t have time to do what you have to, and have to prioritize things that eat away at the conscience. They call it ethical stress.

– A patient who would have to sit up and chew might have to lie in bed all day instead, says Katrin.

Breaks and coffee breaks are often non-existent at weekends. Then the staffing is even lower, although the patients are just as sick as on weekdays.

The region has also decided to cut down on coffee and coffee for healthcare staff, as part of the savings. One might think there is an irony in the M peaks in Västernorrland recently made an effort on a tour in the coffee rooms, to listen to their employees.

For years, the region has tried to reduce its dependence on rent.

Instead, it has sunk deeper into the “rent swamp”.

Västernorrland spends the most percentage-wise on relay doctors and rental nurses in all of Sweden, 768 million annually.

The administration is also swelling, even though politicians promise to reduce it every year. Reorganizations, guidance documents and consultant reports attempt to solve the problem. Yet the cost of civil servants has increased by 27 percent in five years.

Västernorrland has 51 employed care developers.

More and more people are working with statistics, policies – and with the brand.

– I really want to emphasize that every stone has been turned over so that we don’t have unnecessary administrative costs. But we also shouldn’t remove too much administration so that it ends up on our healthcare staff instead, says Elina Backlund Arab (S), regional councillor.

At the same time, Region Västernorrland advertises on Facebook in the spring for even more administrators.

It says: we are looking for you who want to work with induction processes, you who “want to support managers and delve into statistics”.

In the Heart Department, it is heaviest in the mornings.

Here, the staff is constantly too few. Some work when sick, or resign and become temporary staff instead, in order to earn better.

That employees are expected to become proud ambassadors for the Västernorrland region brand is a backwards way of thinking, according to several employees.

The most important thing is to make sure that the staff feel well and can do their job – not to advertise, says nurse Katrin.

– If I don’t like it, then I’ll be honest in telling someone who intends to apply here.