Nurses General Nursing
Published May 7, 2001
Jay-Jay, RN
633 Posts
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-
******************************************************
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
(416) 599-1925 Ext. 207
Fax: (416) 599-1926
[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!