Nursing Week Activities - Ontario

[Jay-Jay, RN]

Okay, guys, here's a chance to toot our horn a bit! Just had this press release forwarded to me by the Registered Nurses' Assoc. of Ontario, and I'm quite impressed! :)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 6, 2001

Nursing shortage spurs professional nurses' associations to launch

multi-media ad campaign: Nurses. Sharing their Knowledge for Life.

TORONTO - The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) and the

Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (RPNAO) launched a

multi-media advertising campaign today as part of its strategy to help

retain and recruit nurses while raising public awareness about the important

and omnipresent roles nurses play in helping keep Ontarians healthy.

"This campaign is one way our associations give voice and visibility to the

realities and rewards of nursing while reminding the public of the

inextricable link between nursing and quality health care," RNAO President

Shirlee Sharkey said during a news conference on the eve of Nursing Week,

May 7-13. And that crucial link, said RPNAO President Trish Nesbitt, will be

broken without an infusion of new nurses, most of them working full time. As

many as 90,000 new nurses will be needed to care for Ontarians over the next

10 years.

The campaign flows from recommendations accepted and supported by the

Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Its theme is Nurses. Sharing their

Knowledge for Life. Components include:

- A series of three personal and provocative subway station posters

featuring individual photographs of an infant (Nurses Raise Us.), an

expectant mother (Nurses Transform Us.), and the aged hands of a senior

sitting in a chair (Nurses Touch Us.). The narrative reads in part: "With

the skill to heal and the commitment to care, nurses are with us every step

of the way." The campaign will run for as long as eight weeks.

- Two television spots: 60 Second Reports produced by Canada NewsWire and

broadcast on CanWest Global Network Monday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 9 at

6:57 p.m. In the reports, nurses are shown working in a range of areas -

hospitals, homes, classrooms, communities, labs, long-term care facilities.

An elderly couple who receives home care through the Toronto Community Care

Access Centre speaks about how nurses provide families like them with both

care and peace of mind.

- A series of six public service announcements, which have been distributed

to 175 radio stations across the province. The six 30-second spots feature

the views and voices of working nurses - such as voices from Walkerton, from

home-care and hospital settings, and from a returning nurse who couldn't

stay away from the profession. In their own words, the nurses speak about

their day-to-day contribution to the health and well-being of people's

lives.

Donna Wells is featured in one of the radio spots with her seven-year-old

daughter Kelsey who says she wants to be a nurse too. Wells' experience as a

nurse embodies the profession's potential as well as its problems. At one

point in her career, Wells worked three part-time nursing jobs to make a

living - a reality that remains for too many nurses. (Almost 50 per cent -

48 per cent - of nurses still work in part-time or casual positions; RNAO

and RPNAO have recommended that employers aim for 70 per cent of staff

working full-time.) But Wells has also had a wonderful array of experiences

- working in post-op surgery and specialty clinics, teaching patients about

to undergo operations, teaching nursing students clinical practice, caring

for people in their homes, and now working as an administrator at the

Scarborough Hospital.

Sharkey said the campaign conveys several messages to potential nurses,

working nurses and the public: Nursing, with its diverse array of

opportunities, is a career worth turning - or returning - to. Nursing is as

much about knowledge and expertise as compassion. Nurses, providing

round-the-clock care for people at their neediest, hold-up the health-care

system - and we need more of them. Nursing is an awesome responsibility,

which the public recognizes and respects.

The campaign, explained Nesbitt, will complement other RNAO/RPNAO projects

in the works such as a speakers bureau, print, video and Web campaigns

targeted to elementary and high school students, and job fairs. The latest

job fair, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, will be

held Monday, May 7 at the Holiday Inn, 370 King Street West, Toronto. More

than 60 exhibitors - health-care employers, colleges and universities - will

be attending the job fair along with hundreds of nurses and Health and

Long-Term Care Minister Tony Clement, who will address the fair at 10 a.m.

Sharkey said short-sighted policies have caused cyclical nursing shortages

that are compounded by competition from other professions eager to recruit

talented men and women. That's why, said Nesbitt, we cannot afford to repeat

the mistakes of the past. We must provide nurses with stable, secure,

full-time positions in working environments that let them provide the

quality care the public deserves and nurses were educated to provide.

-30-

******************************************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 6, 2001

Registered Nurses Association of Ontario to take political leaders to the

frontlines of nursing care during Nursing Week celebrations May 7 - 13

TORONTO - The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) is introducing

something new to this year's roster of Nursing Week celebrations -

on-the-job tours given to politicians by nurses working in a wide range of

workplaces, including family homes, hospitals, community health centres,

clinics, public health units, and long-term care facilities.

Called Bring your MPP to Work: RNs do the rounds with their MPPs, the idea

is the brainchild of RNAO Executive Director Doris Grinspun, who intends to

make it an annual tradition. This year, Health and Long-Term Care Minister

Tony Clement, Liberal Party Leader Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Howard

Hampton have accepted RNAO's invitation to witness first-hand the care

nurses provide people in many different ways in many different places.

Ontario Hospital Association President David MacKinnon will also be

participating in this year's inaugural tours.

"These tours are a window on the working world of nursing, an excellent

opportunity for politicians - and the public - to see and better understand

just what it is registered nurses do," said Grinspun. "We want people to

understand the wide range of responsibilities for which nurses are

accountable, and recognize the important, often sensitive interactions

nurses have with people in need of care - whether it be a nurse practitioner

diagnosing a patient, a visiting nurse providing care for a patient (and

peace of mind for the family), or an emergency nurse trusted to make

critical decisions at a moment's notice," she said.

The schedule for this year's "Bring your MPP to Work":

- Tuesday, May 8, 4 p.m., Health and Long-Term Care Minister Tony Clement

joins RNAO President Shirlee Sharkey to observe a "home visit" by Jaz

Dhanji, RN, who cares for James Craig, a 32-year-old man who has been

receiving home care since 1995. Craig's home care is funded by the North

York Community Care Access Centre and provided by Saint Elizabeth Health

Care.

- Thursday, May 10, 9 a.m., NDP Leader Howard Hampton and RNAO Executive

Director Doris Grinspun will visit the Shout Clinic, 467 Jarvis Street, a

clinic that provides primary health care to street-involved youth. They will

be led by Marianne Surbeck, a nurse practitioner - one of the very first RNs

to be registered in the extended class as a nurse practitioner. She works in

a multi-disciplinary team with other nurses, including nurse practitioners,

along with doctors, social workers, dentists, lawyers, dietitians, etc. to

help street youth.

- Thursday, May 10, 10 a.m., Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and RNAO

President Shirlee Sharkey will visit the Parkdale Community Health Centre,

1229 Queen Street West (Queen & Dufferin) where Executive Director Simone

Hammond, along with community health nurses and nurse practitioners, will

explain the critical work they do there.

- Friday, May 11, 10 a.m., Ontario Hospital Association President David

MacKinnon and RNAO Executive Director Doris Grinspun will visit patients and

RNs at North York General Hospital.

Other Nursing Week events include:

- Nursing Recruitment and Retention Job Fair, Monday, May 7. RNAO and the

Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (RPNAO) with the support

of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are hosting the third

annual Nursing Week Job Fair, 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Holiday Inn, 370 King

Street West, Toronto. Free admission. More than 60 exhibitors from across

the province - health-care employers and colleges and universities - will be

attending and hundreds of nurses are expected to participate. Among the

speakers: Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care,

who speaks at 10 a.m.

- Workshops and speaking engagements, including:

- Wellington-Waterloo chapters of RNAO present President Shirlee Sharkey,

Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) President Barb Wahl and RPNAO President

Elect Gabrielle Bridle Tuesday, May 8, 6 to 10 p.m., Grand Valley Golf

Course, Cambridge. The leaders will speak about the nursing shortage/quality

of work-life issues.

- Thunder Bay Tuesday, May 8 and Wednesday, May 9. Presentation by RNAO

Executive Director Doris Grinspun: "What would Miss Nightingale say? Nursing

challenges and opportunities in the 21st century." Lakehead University.

- Presentation on Nursing Employment Trends by Sue Bookey-Bassett, Program

Development Manager, RNAO Centre for Professional Nursing Excellence:

Tuesday, May 8, Humber River Regional Hospital (Finch Site); Wednesday, May

9, Markham Stouffville Hospital; Wednesday, May 9, Southlake Regional Health

Centre (Newmarket); Thursday, May 10, Humber River Regional Hospital (Church

Site).

- Windsor, Wednesday, May 9, 6:15 to 9:30 p.m. Shirley Douglas, actress and

Medicare activist, speaks at RNAO Essex Chapter and ONA Local 008 during

wine and cheese event. C. Caboto Club, 2175 Parent Avenue.

- Lunch and Learn session with Suzanne Gordon, award-winning author of From

Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public,

Thursday, May 10, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., RNAO Boardroom, 438 University Avenue,

Suite 1600, Toronto. Gordon will also speak Friday, May 11, RNAO Centre for

Professional Nursing Excellence Inaugural Innovations Breakfast, 8:30 to

10:00 a.m., 438 University Avenue, Suite 1600.

- Collingwood, Vacation Inn Resort & Club, Conference Centre. Nursing Week

Celebration organized by RNAO Region 5, Friday, May 11, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Breakfast, workshop on "perfecting your political voice."

RNAO and RPNAO also launched a multi-media advertising campaign on the eve

of Nursing Week. Components of the campaign include a series of subway

posters, six radio spots for province-wide distribution, and two Canada

NewsWire 60-second Reports, to be broadcast on the Global Television News

Network May 7 and May 9 at 6:57 p.m. (For more details on the campaign, view

"Nursing shortage spurs professional associations to launch multi-media ad

campaign: Nurses. Sharing their Knowledge for Life. or visit www.rnao.org.)

Meaghan Obee

Executive Assistant to Doris Grinspun

Registered Nurses Association of Ontario

438 University Ave. Suite 1600

Toronto, ON M5G 2K8

[phone] Ext. 207

Fax: [phone]

[email protected]

This, coupled with an article on the front page of the Toronto Star, saying that fewer nurses in Canada are unhappy with their jobs when compared with nurses in the States, gives me some cause to rejoice today. Mind you, I'll be a LOT happier when the number of dissatisfied nurses drops below the quoted 32.9 % for Canada, and 41.0 % for the U.S.! Keep on fighting, and maybe we can achieve this!