“Muskoka residents are privileged to live in a beautiful community. Yet, the proposal from Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) to cut and transfer services out of Bracebridge has ignited a solidarity among residents and the nurses who provide care that is uplifting to witness. 

Under the guise of reducing duplication of services, the MAHC plan is to cut an intensive care unit bed from Bracebridge, cut acute care beds from 67 to 18, move the rest of acute care to the Huntsville site, and cut obstetrics services – including the labour and delivery plan – from Bracebridge. Surgical services in Bracebridge will be limited to mostly day surgeries for outpatients. With this proposal, the Huntsville hospital will lose its Chemotherapy department, which will be moved to the South Muskoka Site. 

Local registered nurses (RNs) and health-care professionals are fighting these cuts just as passionately as other residents are, right alongside neighbours, family, friends – and patients. 

I am a proud registered nurse serving the communities of Muskoka for 22 years and currently the Bargaining Unit President of Ontario Nurses’ Association Local 17, where I represent more than 200 RNs at MAHC. Muskoka has been my home for 24 years. My five grandchildren were all born in Muskoka hospitals.

I have worked as an Intensive Care Unit RN at MAHC for 13 years. I have also worked at the bedside in the obstetrics unit in South Muskoka and at the Huntsville site in the ER and Med-Surg, both before and after the amalgamation of the two hospitals.

Being an RN or health-care professional comes with enormous responsibilities, and we all take them very seriously. Obstetrical nurses are educated, skilled, knowledgable and dedicated. I know that it is a privilege to be present as an obstetrics nurse as individuals become families, help labouring women through the experience of giving birth, and help couples and families transition from birth to home by providing quality post-partum care and building a trusting, therapeutic relationship. The proposal to close the obstetrics unit at the Bracebridge site disappoints and horrifies us, for many reasons.   

Closure means that parents-to-be face a 41-km or longer drive to the Huntsville site. Is it fair to have to drive that far, in possibly stormy and hazardous driving conditions, to give birth? The Board’s proposal to move OB services is contrary to the evidence about safety – the Journal of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology says that, “Women who reside in rural and remote communities in Canada should receive high-quality maternity care as close to home as possible.”  

When I lived in Parry Sound, I gave birth to five children, all delivered safely in a rural hospital that has fewer babies delivered in one year than either hospital in Muskoka has. I know firsthand how important it is to have maternity care close to home – from my professional and personal experience.

If the hospital’s proposal moves forward, there will be a huge cascade effect, including cuts of further services such as surgical and emergency services. Women’s health care will suffer, and more family doctors will consider leaving.   

Women in the South Muskoka area will face increased risks from having to deliver their babies outside the community, including social/psychological stress, financial strains, and more. If the cuts proceed, there is a high likelihood of Bracebridge staff cuts, at a time when the nursing shortage has surpassed crisis levels. 

Huntsville is facing cuts to diagnostic imaging procedures, chemotherapy treatments, endoscopies and surgical and procedural visits. Perhaps the provincial government plans to send these patients to the corporate, for-profit private clinics it is touting, at a much higher cost to taxpayers? 

Alongside residents, I have participated in town halls. My colleagues and I are dismayed and disappointed at the employer’s proposal of the ‘Made in Muskoka’ model. 

I want to be clear: both Huntsville and Bracebridge need and deserve full health-care services. Your RNs support our community in the fight to say NO to these proposals. As those on the front lines, we have been doing more with less for too long. Good care is local care and we stand with you to fight for our community’s health. 

‘Made in Muskoka’ or made elsewhere, this proposal is simply bad medicine. Don’t give up the fight to save local services.”

The post Nurses Know Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Cuts Must Be Stopped, Vow To Continue To Fight Alongside Residents appeared first on Muskoka411.

The arbitration decision provides average wage increases of 11 per cent over two years. When added to two additional recent arbitration decisions stemming from the overturn of Bill 124 – wage suppression legislation passed by the Ford government – Ontario hospital RNs and health-care professionals will receive wage increases that average 16 per cent from March 31, 2023 to April 1, 2024. This amounts to an average hourly wage increase of approximately $5 to $7.

ONA President Erin Ariss, RN, says that “this decision is a first step to righting past wrongs, and bringing hospitals nurses’ compensation up to where it should be. In his decision, Arbitrator Kaplan explicitly recognizes that improving wages is among the best ways to recruit and retain desperately needed nurses and begin to fix the nursing shortage. ONA members have been organizing across the province to push for better wages to improve staffing and patient care. This time, we were heard.”

In a first for health-care contracts in Ontario, the arbitrator has also provided dedicated isolation pay. This ensures salary continuation in the event of exposure to communicable diseases, such as COVID-19, recognizing health-care workers are at heightened risk.

“I give full credit for this significant arbitration decision to our front-line members and our extraordinary bargaining team,” says Ariss. “The historic engagement of hospital nurses across the province in recent months represents a new era for the profession. This new contract will not fix staffing shortages overnight, especially with a government pursuing a disastrous privatization agenda. The fight for better patient care is only beginning.”

ONA is the union representing 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

The post Ontario Hospital Nurses, Health-Care Professionals Receive Major Wage Increases In Decision That Cites The Need To Retain Staff appeared first on Muskoka411.

The Ontario government is investing over $4.6 million in the Michener Institute to remove financial barriers for nurses wanting to upskill to work in critical care areas of hospitals.

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Nurses across the province are speaking out on how the staffing crisis is affecting the profession and people’s health. They will be raising concerns and discussing solutions as part of an upcoming Fall Tour with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO).

“The deepening nursing shortage is causing hardship in all sectors and settings across the province. And yet not enough is being done to alleviate the urgent issues threatening the health of Ontarians and of nurses themselves,” says RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway. “For our eighth annual Fall Tour, we will be hearing members’ experiences and thoughts on the nursing crisis.”

Topics include ensuring competitive compensation for nurses through the repeal of Bill 124 and other steps, as well as addressing workloads, stress and burnout.

“This tour will be an opportunity to make sure nurses’ voices and their lived experiences are brought forward to the government,” says RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun. “We are seeing nurses leave traditional employment to go to private agencies or go across the border because they are frustrated by the working conditions in Ontario. We are also seeing nurses leave the profession altogether in unprecedented numbers. The time is now to thank nurses with concrete actions: competitive salaries and benefits, and workloads that allow them to deliver the excellent care that Ontarians need and deserve. We must invest in nursing so they can build their careers in the province.”

Key to building nursing careers in Ontario, according to RNAO, is ensuring pathways for the more than 26,000 internationally educated nurses (IEN) eager to jump-start their nursing career by speeding up the processing of applications by Ontario’s nursing regulatory body. Nurses already working in the health system also need new career paths so they remain engaged in the profession and here in Ontario where patients need their care. These issues – and solutions outlined by the association in its May 2022 report Nursing Through Crisis – will be front and centre during this year’s event.

RNAO’s CEO, president and immediate past-president will also be discussing successes and achievements in bringing nurses’ voices, perspectives and experiences to the forefront over the past year as part of the tour. These will include the release of the Black Nurses Task Force report, which addresses systemic anti-Black racism and discrimination contributing to nurses’ hardship and to the nursing crisis.

“Nurses have given it their all throughout this pandemic, caring for Ontarians at all stages of their lives. However, we have all reached a breaking point and nurses can no longer work under these conditions: selflessly giving to the point of exhaustion,” says RNAO Immediate Past-President Morgan Hoffarth. “As the professional association representing more than 48,500 RNs, NPs and nursing students, we need to solve this nursing crisis for the sake of the nursing profession and the health of all Ontarians.”

Join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #FallTour.

Details of RNAO’s Fall Tour:

• Waterloo Chapter – Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. ET – register online
• Lambton Chapter – Sept. 14 at 2 p.m. ET – register online
• International Nursing Interest Group – Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. ET – register online
• Brant Haldimand Norfolk, Chatham Kent Chapter, Community Health Nurses’ Initiatives’ Group and the Mental Health Nursing Interest Group – Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. ET – register online
• Palliative Care Nurses Interest Group – Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. ET – register online
• Algoma Chapter – Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. ET at Quattro Hotel & Conference Centre on 229 Great Northern Road in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. – register online
• Region 6 (Toronto West) and the Ontario Nurses for the Environment Interest Group – Sept. 23 at 6 p.m. ET – register online

The post Nurses Call For An End To The Nursing Crisis During RNAO Fall Tour appeared first on Muskoka411.

The federal government took a major step towards that goal Tuesday by announcing that it was reinstating the role of Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Canada and appointing Dr. Leigh Chapman to the position.

“Dr. Chapman is a well-known RNAO member and an outstanding choice to inform federal HHR policy. Chapman’s expertise as a registered nurse (RN) in various roles and sectors is matched only by her incredible compassion,” says RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway. “This role has always been important, and even more crucial now given nursing shortages that have been exacerbated by the pandemic,” she adds. “We commend Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos for taking this important step. RNAO has advocated for the reinstatement of this role since it was eliminated under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper,” notes Holloway.

Nursing was also top of mind during a meeting Premier Doug Ford held with his Maritime counterparts Monday. During media availability all premiers acknowledged the dire HHR crisis we find ourselves in. Holloway calls it a long-coming admission given the state of the crisis. “Ontario is in even more dire situation as we entered the pandemic with the lowest RN-to-population in Canada – a shortfall of 22,000 RNs. During the past two and a half years more RNs have left due to excessive workloads, deteriorating working conditions, stress and burnout – as well as reduced earnings caused by Ontario’s Bill 124.”

All four premiers emphasized the need to collaborate with health sector experts and adopt “best practices” to solve the challenges facing the health system. Many of these best practices can be found in the Nursing Through Crisis report released by RNAO in May. They range from ensuring competitive compensation and reducing workloads to building career paths for nurses and other health professionals in Canada so they continue working here for decades to come.

Building career paths includes helping registered practical nurses (RPN) and licensed practical nurses (LPN) become RNs by providing flexible and ready access to bridging programs, supporting RNs to develop expertise in clinical areas, or furthering their careers as clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners (NP), managers or educators. It also means enabling NPs to work to their full scope of practice, vastly improving access and flow of patients throughout the health system.

“The exodus of nurses from full-time work positions in hospitals and other settings can only be stopped if full-time permanent positions are better rewarded and recognized over agency positions,” says Holloway. And she notes, “It is urgent for our province to capitalize on existing proven programs such as the Nursing Graduate Guarantee and the Late Career Nursing Initiative, and to build a mid-career nursing initiative to entice nurses to stay in Ontario.”

“Canadians are feeling the devastating effects of the nursing crisis. Whether it is long wait times accessing the system, closures of emergency rooms, delays in procedures and surgeries or trying to get the care they need in home care and long-term care, no sector is immune,” adds Holloway. The crisis is drastically compounded by short staffing, a situation that Holloway says “creates moral distress which affects nurses’ ability to provide the highest quality of care. It is untenable and cannot continue.”

RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun says the federal government must take further actions. While thanking deeply Prime Minister Trudeau for appointing an outstanding CNO, she calls on him to increase federal transfer payments to the provinces – and to do so with strings attached to ensure investments are made to improve HHR policy. “We also urge the prime minister to use his authority to ensure premiers fully uphold the principles and spirit of the Canada Health Act (CHA). This includes prohibiting for-profit corporations from performing medical and surgical procedures that require overnight stays,” says Grinspun. She adds, “We ask nurses and all Canadians to be vigilant and disclose any such practices.”

RNAO opposes medical procedures and surgeries being performed by for-profit corporations because these entities are legally obliged to prioritize the interests of shareholders and investors – not those of patients. “We cannot allow shareholders to carve out money and drain scarce HHR resources from the public purse, thus aggravating the nursing shortage and people’s health,” says Grinspun. “This is nurses’ line in the sand – crossing the line would bankrupt the system ethically and financially, and deliver worse outcomes for most Canadians.”

Grinspun says the challenges facing the health system are not insurmountable, and that Canada’s well-regarded health system can be fixed. “RNAO is eager to continue working with all governments to do what we need to do for the benefit of our patients and for communities – right across this country.”

SOURCE Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

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“For years, Black nurses have been afraid to speak out about the microaggressions, discrimination and racism they face within academic and workplace settings for fear of reprisal and the suppressive behaviours of managers,” says BNTF co-chair and RNAO Past-President Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite. “Today, during Black History Month, we’re proud to release a report that sheds a light on the challenges and barriers Black nurses face and the solutions that will help us eliminate anti-Black racism and discrimination within the nursing profession.”

The BNTF is made up of 17 Black nurses and nursing students working in various sectors of the health system with a mandate to tackle systemic racism and discrimination within nursing.

The report, Acknowledging, Addressing and Tackling Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination Within the Nursing Profession, features 19 recommendations. The BNTF was guided in its work by four main pillars: education and awareness building; research; advocacy at all levels; and partnership with allies and stakeholders. The report also includes information from a scoping review of the literature and results from an online survey of 205 Black nurses across Ontario.

The report’s recommendations are:

• Include racism and discrimination as a topic in nursing and interprofessional curriculums.
• Provide equitable and fair placements for Black nurses in all practice settings.
• Provide mentoring programs for nursing students to enhance academic achievements, reduce stress, anxiety and dropout rates and to empower Black students.
• Create educational and research grants/financial incentives/scholarships targeted specifically for Black applicants.
• Develop and implement anti-racism, anti-oppression, cultural safety, and diversity, equity and inclusion training and orientation for staff at all levels in all workplace and academic settings.
• Include diversity, equity and inclusion committees in all workplaces and academic settings to address racism and discrimination.
• Hold all staff (professors, managers, health-care providers) accountable for addressing racial discrimination and develop specific strategies to combat it.
• Acknowledge systemic racism and discrimination exists at individual, organization and policy levels. Non-Black nurses must self-identify and address their individual biases. They must be encouraged by their organization to continually engage in reflective practice and delve into their perceptions and experiences to assess inherent biases and values.
• Create safe spaces for Black nurses to open up about the discrimination and oppression they face in professional settings.
• Embed mentorship programs in workplaces for Black nurses to facilitate professional growth and development, and to improve retention and recruitment of Black employees.
• Provide tools and resources to support Black nurses as they navigate difficult challenges when dealing with residents, patients or families who display racism.
• Advocate for diversity in leadership, senior and/or administrative, education roles in the nursing profession as well as health sectors.
• Increase access to mental health supports in the workplace and academic settings to address traumas related to racism.
• Develop and enforce policies on anti-racism, such as zero tolerance of racism from staff, nursing leaders, patients and families.
• Collect and disseminate race-based data.
• Provide mandatory courses or workshops that include topics of cultural humility, anti-oppressive behaviors, anti-racism and trauma-informed care in orientation and continuing education programs.
• Stand in solidarity through partnership with health-care associations and organizations; advocate to diversify their senior team and provide equitable opportunities for Black individuals at the senior executive/management level.
• Advocate for the federal and provincial governments to address racism against Black Canadians and include Black History within the educational curriculum in Canada.
• Advocate for the establishment of a commission similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate and address racism against Black Canadians.

“The recommendations outlined in this report speak to the dire need to address and ultimately expunge racism from our profession. The report highlights the devastating impact systemic racism is having on the lived experiences and mental health of Black nurses in academic and workplace settings,” says BNTF co-chair and nurse practitioner Corsita Garraway. “All health-care and academic organizations must immediately take action and acknowledge that anti-Black racism is deeply entrenched in the history of nursing in Ontario and Canada.”

“RNAO is calling for an end to anti-Black racism within the profession and the dismantling of systemic racism in Ontario. Racism is a determinant of health that plays a key role in generating and reinforcing social inequities,” says RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun, who launched the task force in June 2020 after the murder of George Floyd sent chills across the world and those who have experienced anti-Black racism and violence. Grinspun says “no sector, profession or organization is immune to the ingrained effects of systemic racism, including nursing and health care. We are determined to leave no stone unturned until we end systemic racism within our profession and beyond.”

“RNAO will continue to use its platform to call for decisive action from national and provincial nursing organizations and institutions to enact meaningful change to overcome the systemic racism that exists in our profession. Racism is a public health crisis that cannot be ignored. It threatens the health and well-being of racialized nurses, it limits their contributions to the health system and it interferes with their ability to provide safe, compassionate and ethical care to Ontarians,” says RNAO President Morgan Hoffarth.

In addition to these 19 recommendations, RNAO developed specific actions to grow allyship and solidarity with Black nurses within its own organization. This includes a plan to integrate anti-racism and discrimination training for all staff during the on-boarding process, develop a human resources framework that promotes equitable hiring practices and stand in solidarity with organizations that are instituting advisory committees for marginalized nurses and encourage organizations in Ontario to have such committees.

SOURCE Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

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“Our nurses and health-care professionals are beyond overworked, burnt out and continue to suffer moral distress as COVID-19 continues,” ONA President Cathryn Hoy, RN, says. “Short staffing may not allow us to deliver the care our patients, residents and clients need and deserve. ONA has concrete solutions and actions this provincial government could choose to take right now – and we expect government to adopt them to help to rebuild the health system.

“Bill 124 must be repealed today,” she says. “This government’s wage suppression legislation is a large part of the disrespect of nurses that is fuelling an exodus from the profession. Nurses and health-care professionals have suffered long enough under this discriminatory legislation and it’s time for Premier Ford to listen to our more than 68,000 nurses and health-care professionals and repeal this once and for all.”

The COVID-19 pandemic – combined with Bills 175 and 195 passed by this government – have been the breaking point for many nurses and health-care professionals. There’s been a domino effect of unmanageable patient assignments that have increased overtime, extreme stress, and burnout in addition to managing health and safety protocols. “Any short-sighted budget decisions that are made by the Ford government will be bad news for the health of Ontarians,” notes Hoy. “ONA has provided nine strong recommendations that will begin to rebuild health care so that patients, residents and clients can access the care they deserve. The money is there – Premier Ford simply needs to direct it to frontlines. We urge him to begin to work collaboratively with ONA, for the well-being of all Ontarians.”

A copy of ONA’s pre-budget submission can be found here.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses’ Association

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We, the professional associations representing physicians and nurses, want to express our deepest gratitude to all those working to save lives; and to protect our families, friends and communities. As you have for almost two years, you continue to make personal sacrifices to care for others and for that we are indebted to you.

The Ontario Medical Association and the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario wish our fellow Ontarians all the very best over the holidays. We ask everyone to honour the work and sacrifices of those in our health-care system by getting themselves and their children fully vaccinated; using a well fitted mask; and keeping holiday gatherings small and with good ventilation.

We also urge everyone to treat health-care workers with kindness and renew our call for an end to the bullying and threats against those who have been working around the clock on the front lines of the pandemic. Health professionals cannot and must not be distracted by these attacks, in person or online. The OMA and the RNAO also want to thank MPs for giving speedy passage to new federal legislation to protect health workers and patients from harassment and intimidation.

Here are five things all Ontarians can do to protect themselves and others:

1. Get yourself fully vaccinated – which now means three shots – and get your children vaccinated
2. Keep holiday gatherings small, bundle up and open windows to enable good ventilation
3. Wear the best-quality mask you can find and wear it properly, covering your nose and mouth
4. Continue to follow all public health guidelines, including washing your hands to prevent other infections, and maintaining physical distancing
5. Take care of your own mental health and reach out to those who may be alone or vulnerable over the holidays

SOURCE:

Dr. Doris Grinspun
CEO, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

Dr. Adam Kassam
President, Ontario Medical Association

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The association says much stronger measures are needed to address the magnitude of the challenge facing the province. “Capacity limits provided today are too generous given the millions of Ontarians over the age of 18 still in line to get booster shots, and the demand for boosters outstrips our capacity to deliver them quickly,” says RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun, noting that nurses play a significant role in vaccine distribution.

Earlier this week, the association implored Premier Doug Ford to treat nurses with the respect they deserve. “Not only are they running on empty, they are working for less pay because of Bill 124, legislation that caps nurses’ salaries to just one per cent,” says Grinspun, adding the best way to ensure there are enough nurses to fight the explosive growth in new infections is to immediately repeal Bill 124.

“Nurses care deeply about their patients and they keep going to work facing insurmountable challenges. Their patient assignments have increased dramatically. Most still do not have the N95 masks needed to keep them and their colleagues safe given that COVID-19 is airborne, and they feel increasingly ignored by a government that does not care about their health and wellbeing,” says Morgan Hoffarth, RNAO President referring to Bill 124. Hoffarth added nurses and Ontarians can send a message to Premier Ford by contacting their local MPP.

Hoffarth also urges Ontarians to do their part by adhering to all public health measures for the sake of their own health and that of their families. “This is a virus that knows no bounds. We all have an obligation to look out for ourselves and for one another.”

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has advocated for healthy public policy, promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased nurses’ contribution to shaping the health system, and influenced decisions that affect nurses and the public we serve. For more information about RNAO, visit RNAO.ca or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

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