We are living through a pandemic, but we don’t know much about the way the pandemic is advancing since we have so little epidemiological data. RNAO continues to call for massively escalating testing for COVID-19, for two reasons.

Today is World Health Day. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic was in sight, the World Health Organization (WHO) was planning to use, April 7, to release a report on the state of the world’s nursing workforce.

Yesterday was World Health Day and RNAO’s board of directors had a three-hour meeting to celebrate, share and plan ahead. We comforted our president, Dr. Angela Cooper Braithwaite, who had just lost her niece to COVID-19 in New York. To Angela’s family, many of whom I know read this blog – we love you!

Today, Good Friday, April 10, focuses on long term care. I chose this as my report’s focus as their residents are most affected by COVID-19 – in their isolation from loved ones and in the devastating fatalities we as a society have experienced. For the families and friends of residents in nursing homes and retirement homes and especially those who have lost loved ones: our hearts are with you at this difficult time.

Nurses and other health providers continue to raise many questions and concerns regarding PPE. On behalf of RNAO, I have raised concerns regarding shortages, gave advise to government, provided guidance on the use of N95 masks.

Take action: We witnessed a sad event yesterday – the callous tweet by British Columbia MP Marc Dalton, which he then removed. It shows, once again, the devaluing of our elders and also of nursing homes as a sector. Tragically, this exemplifies the thinking behind the decades-long policy decisions to under-fund and under-staff nursing homes pre-COVID-19, and the total abandonment of nursing homes and their residents during the pandemic.

As the light at the end of the tunnel begins to shine, so too does the sun as we welcome the warmer weather, and with it, the desire to live a fuller life. At this time, we must diligently and wisely examine what it is we want to take with us to our “new normal,” and what we want to leave behind.

We are now entering the fourth month of COVID-19 in Ontario, and RNAO’s leadership – including our expert staff, board of directors, assembly of leaders and over 44,000 RNs, NPs and nursing students – has been stellar. This level of deep engagement in the front-lines of practice, at the management and executive decision-making tables is worthy of a standing ovation.

The ubiquitous slogan, from TV to social media, is: “We are all in this together!” However, the reality of the pandemic is strikingly different. The COVID virus insidiously attacks the most vulnerable among us, and it takes an extraordinary amount of intentional focus, effort, resources and humanity to make sure we protect those most exposed to infection and who expect the worst outcomes.

Last week, I gave each and all of you a standing ovation and virtual BRAVO for being there, day in and day out, for patients and for one another, with knowledge, compassion and courage!