January 12 2022 COVID-19 report
Dear Colleagues: Welcome to my Wednesday, January 12 blog during this twenty third month of COVID-19 in Ontario. You can find earlier update reports here, including thematic pieces in Doris’ COVID-19 Blog. And, for the many resources RNAO offers on COVID-19, please visit the COVID-19 Portal where you will also find RNAO media hits and releases on the pandemic here. Daily Situational Reports from Ontario’s MOH EOC can be found here. Feel free to share this report and links with anyone interested. Scroll down for several upcoming RNAO webinars in January.
A message as we begin 2022 amid a fifth wave
As we begin a new year, 2022, amid another very challenging wave – the fifth one -- I want to thank each health care worker for the work you do. Our nursing colleagues are stretched beyond imagination with unattainable workloads and an unjust Bill 124 undermining their unparalleled contribution to Ontario’s health-care system. Please know that RNAO will stand by you, with you and for you until this government acts!
Today, Minister of Health Christine Elliot made an enouncement. I naively thought it would be about the demand to #RepealBill124 and the fast-tracking of Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs). These are two of the issues we have been raising. It was wishful thinking regarding the first issue and a token of recognition to our plea on the second. Minister Elliot announced that 300 IENs will be deployed to hospitals “as early as this week.” She also informed that 1,200 IENs have expressed interest in those positions. I say a “token of recognition” referring to the insistence of RNAO and our awesome members calling to fast-track the process for the thousands of IENs who have been waiting for years to be processed. Some have waited upwards of eight years. Such state of affairs is wrong, unjust and disastrous for them, for our colleagues who are beyond exhaustion, and for Ontarians who need and deserve safe and quality care.
Colleagues, in addition to the thousands of IENs waiting to be processed by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO), there are hundreds of nurses who live in Ontario and who have attained all the regulatory requirements to work. Still, they are not allowed to work as they came to Canada as “caregivers” and cannot work as nurses until Immigration and Citizenship Canada changes their work permit status. I am working with them to help in their struggle.
My dear readers, we will continue to demand from the CNO to speed up the process for IEN registration. I know too well what our colleagues are going through. After all, I too am an IEN. So is our immediate past-president Dr. Angela Cooper-Brathwaite, and our president-elect, Dr. Claudette Holloway. We must end an absurd situation where our colleagues at the bedside are forced to work double shifts with double workloads, while thousands of fully trained IENs are unable to work due to bureaucratic ineptitude and lack of political will.
2021 was a tough year for nurses in the frontlines, their managers, educators and nursing students. It was also an exhausting year for many of us who have been doing all we can to support our colleagues and Ontarians. 2022, with Omicron spreading fast, has had an extremely challenging beginning, but hopefully come the spring life will become easier. For now, we must continue fighting the virus. When necessary, we will also fight the system that at times adds rather than softens difficulties for the public and for nurses.
On behalf of RNAO’s President Morgan Hoffarth, the entire Board and staff, I thank you for being champions of care and responding to the call with knowledge, compassion, and courage. You save lives and you help grieve lost ones. You make a difference for people everywhere and every day. You endure scars and exhaustion. And sometimes we find silver linings. I cannot stop saying that my biggest silver lining is YOU – the Ontario nurses – RNs, NPs, RPNs and nursing students. YOU inspire me to no end. My biggest sorrow is that YOUR unwavering and endless giving has NOT yet been matched by the respect you demand and deserve. Therefore, RNAO will continue to fight to #RepealBill124 until this reprehensible bill is repealed. 2022 MUST bring you full recognition and also rest and fun.
This week we share: 1) A health system on the verge of total collapse – RNAO’s open letter to Premier Doug Ford; 2) RNAO’s continuing media profile for December 2021; and 3) Canada’s failure to respond with foresight when it comes to COVID-19.
Re: A health system on the verge of total collapse – An open letter to Premier Doug Ford
RNAO issued the following letter on Jan. 5, 2022.
Dear Premier Ford,
As the fifth wave of this pandemic rages, the cracks in our health system are clear for all to see. Witness: the implementation of Code Orange in hospitals and the cancellation of surgeries and procedures yet again; nursing homes desperately short of health-care workers; the severe shortage of RNs in our hospital emergency departments, ICUs and other critical areas; a home care sector with drastically declining acceptance rates, unable to keep up with demand; and a shortage of paramedics. And all of this is happening under your watch - even before the devastation of Omicron peaks.
Throughout the entire course of this pandemic, you have continually shown disrespect for nurses and the nursing profession, turning a pre-pandemic nursing shortage into a full-blown nursing crisis.
Two actions are required immediately to avert the full collapse of Ontario’s health system:
- Move Ontario back to Step One of Ontario’s Roadmap to Reopen.
- Repeal Bill 124, top up compensation and improve working conditions for nurses so we retain those working and the thousands who have left hopefully return.
Premier, your reactive and last-minute management of this pandemic must end. It ought to be clear to you by now that your approach is failing Ontarians. You must also recognize that there is no separate trajectory for Ontario’s economy while this virus ravages the people of this province and threatens to bring our health system to its knees. COVID-19 must be confronted and defeated with steely courage and determination.
Ontarians desperately needs the help of the nursing profession to succeed in fighting Omicron. As the premier of this province, it is on you to understand this, change the conduct of your government and bring hope back to our nursing profession. It is clear from your remarks at recent media conferences that you have turned a blind eye to the realities on the ground as nurses, and RNs in particular, continue in vain to fight COVID-19. This happens as the Omicron variant sweeps through Ontario communities at breakneck speed.
In our Nov. 29 letter to you, we outlined the serious RN understaffing crisis facing the province. This crisis existed long before the pandemic and it is one that is now demonstrably worse. Its effects are being felt across the health system. Every day, nurses are making the difficult choice to leave their chosen profession after careful and considered thought. There are many reasons why nurses have reached this breaking point. Too many days with excessive and dangerous patient workloads. Too many shifts without a day off. Too much time spent away from their families and loved ones. And, too many days under Bill 124 – legislation your government passed in a misguided attempt at austerity. This has left nurses with an absurd salary “increase” this year that in reality constitutes a four per cent reduction in their real income after inflation.
The true cost of Bill 124 is now laid bare for all to see; the system doesn’t have enough RNs to deal with the Omicron crisis. At a critical time in this latest wave of new infections and staggering numbers, nurses who remain in their roles are continuing to prop up our health system as best they can - but just barely. We do not want to think what will happen when Omicron reaches the elderly population in Ontario, which is only starting now. Nurses and the healthcare system are hanging on by a thread and it is only going to get worse. Lives are at stake.
For 23 months, we have been warning you that the pandemic is not over. We have been warning that real system planning needs to happen. And at the centre of that planning is ensuring there is a robust RN workforce to care for those who need it. As we have outlined time and again, you cannot have a well-functioning system if you have a crisis in nursing. The two are interdependent.
An effective response to Ontario’s nursing crisis begins by repealing Bill 124. The fall session of the legislature ended without acknowledging the plea of thousands of nurses to repeal this bill. As a result, over the holidays we stepped up our campaign by asking our members to get in touch with their local MPPs. Nurses brought greeting cards to those who signed a pledge to support our call for the repeal of this legislation; they asked those who have not signed, why not?
Leaders Andrea Horwath, Steven Del Duca and Michael Schreiner have all signed our pledge to support our call to repeal Bill 124. So have all of their MPPs. But, premier, you have not signed, and nor have any of your MPPs, despite several wanting to do so. Your marching orders to them are clear: ignore nurses. The question is why? Only you can answer.
In addition to repealing Bill 124, the work to rebuild Ontario’s nursing profession must begin. We have laid out essential building blocks in that process. It starts with retention – making sure the RNs currently caring for patients remain in the profession. We need every single one of them. We have called for specific measures to support nursing careers in Ontario:
- Immediately repeal Bill 124 to signal respect for nurses as essential workers.
- Increase the supply of RNs by increasing school enrolment by 10 per cent in each of the next eight years.
- Expand bridging programs from PSW to RPN, from RPN to RN, and from RN to NP.
- Expedite the processing for internationally educated RNs (there are thousands waiting).
- Support faculty retention and recruitment in nursing programs.
- Develop and fund a Return to Nursing Now program to attract RNs back to the workforce.
- Expand the Nursing Graduate Guarantee (NGG) program and reinstate the Late Career Nurse Initiative.
- Establish a nursing task force to make additional recommendations.
Premier, although we have had an RN shortage for decades, you and your government continue to compound the problem by disrespecting nurses and devaluing our expertise. Nurses see Bill 124 as ample evidence of that. The length of the pandemic and the ensuing stress and burnout it has caused demand your immediate attention. Inaction will inevitably bring Ontario’s health system to a complete collapse, costing more suffering and more lives lost. The system needs more RNs and more NPs. We have been warning you of the need to take action. Critical time has been lost and now, speed is of the essence.
We are deeply worried about our colleagues on the frontlines. And we are deeply worried that Ontarians of all ages, including children, will not get the access they need to emergency departments, ICUs and other critical areas.
Premier Ford, nurses urge you to immediately move Ontario back to Step One of Ontario’s Roadmap to Reopen. And repeal Bill 124 - let’s work together to rebuild the nursing profession so it is there for all Ontarians.
Yours warmly,
Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), Dr(hc), FAAN, FCAN, O.ONT
Chief Executive Officer
Morgan Hoffarth, RN, MScN
President
RNAO’s continuing media profile: The December 2021 report
On Jan. 3, Premier Doug Ford announced new public health measures in response to the increasing daily case counts of COVID-19, most linked to the Omicron variant. These measures included a move back to Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopening framework, which closes indoor dining and gyms, limits indoor gatherings to five people, and reduces capacity in retail stores and personal care services to 50 per cent, among other restrictions. Ford also announced online learning for all Ontario students until at least Jan. 17.
In response, RNAO published a media release calling these measures “too little, too late.”
“This was completely avoidable had Premier Ford and Dr. Moore listened and acted earlier,” said RNAO President Morgan Hoffarth. RNAO warned the Omicron variant would spread rapidly and urged the government to act accordingly, yet delayed action from the government has led to detrimental impacts on our health system. On Jan. 5, I told CTV News that the premier and his cabinet are abandoning nurses. “It’s an absolute disgrace. At least in other provinces, the premiers speak about nurses and are doing all they can to help (nurses). Here it is not the case.” As we start a new year, rest assured that RNAO will continue to advocate to protect health-care workers, the public and our health system as a whole.
In December 2021, RNAO spoke to the media about several prominent, timely issues including the ongoing nursing shortage, Bill 124 and booster vaccines. We also commented on the Ontario government’s announcements prior to the holidays, including changes to capacity limits, testing requirements and reporting of cases.
The ongoing and worsening shortage of nurses continues to be at the forefront of RNAO’s advocacy and media activity. In December, we issued a number of media releases calling on the premier to immediately repeal Bill 124. On Dec. 7, we called on MPPs to sign a pledge to show their support for the repeal of Bill 124 and to have their names added to our website. On Dec. 14, we issued a second media release following a press conference with myself, RNAO President-Elect Claudette Holloway and RN Leah Waxman, one of the founders of Nursewithsign416. I told CTV News Kitchener (Dec. 13) that “there is a crisis in the RN workforce.” In a Dec. 31 CTV Northern News article about nurse burnout, I said: “It’s a story of disregard of nurses and nursing as a profession that repeats and repeats.” Our hospitals are in a critical state and our nurses need to be respected for the important care they provide every day. Also on Dec. 31, in my Globe and Mail op-ed about Bill 124, I said that the way out of this nursing crisis “will not begin until Ontario has a government that sees, values and respects its nurses by compensating them for what they are worth.” If you haven’t already done so, please sign our Action Alert and share it with your friends, families and networks to continue to urge the government to repeal Bill 124 to respect and retain nurses.
On Dec. 2, Ontario expanded booster shot eligibility to those 50 and older. RNAO welcomed this expansion and urged the government to make vaccinations mandatory for health-care and education workers. “This virus knows no boundaries so we need to act on all fronts,” I said in our Dec. 3 media release. Eligibility for the booster shot was expanded again to include all Ontarians 18 and older in mid-December. “Omicron is explosive. This is why we urge every Ontarian who is eligible to get vaccinated, and for those who already have, get your booster shot,” I said in our Dec. 15 media release. Thank you to those who have already received all three doses.
The Ontario government announced capacity limits of 50 per cent for restaurants, bars and gyms as well as social gathering limits of 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors on Dec. 17. RNAO issued a media release on the same day, stating that while these steps are essential, Premier Ford did not do enough to contain the out-of-control spread of the virus. We are now facing the consequences of this inaction with increased daily case counts, hospitalizations and staffing shortages across all health sectors. “This is a virus that knows no bounds,” said RNAO President Morgan Hoffarth. Also on that same day, I told CP24 that “the health system will not be unable to cope with (the virus).”
By the end of December, the Ontario government had announced it was updating its testing and isolation guidelines. Due to lab resources being stretched too thin, PCR testing would only be available to high-risk individuals who were symptomatic or at risk of severe illness, as well as workers and residents in highest risk settings. Those guidelines are still in place today.
The province is now urging people who suspect they have COVID-19 to isolate for five days (vs. the previous 10-day requirement). The government also announced it would no longer provide school case counts of the virus – an absolute disgrace. In an RNAO media release issued on Dec. 30, thoughtfully titled “Ontario government surrendering its fight against Omicron,” I said: “Without a Plan B, people who are sick or who are asymptomatic but suspect they may have Omicron, are on their own.” I told CTV News (Dec. 31) that the government is “giving up on any attempt to control this virus…Our concern is a health-system collapse.”
On Jan. 6, RNAO issued an open letter to the premier. He must act now as the system is on the verge of a total collapse. If you are active on social media, please share our tweet with your followers to urge the Ontario government to move back to Stage One of the province’s reopening framework and #RepealBill124.
In December, RNAO’s media outreach resulted in 95 media hits. We will continue to speak out on important issues and push for the Ford government to take action when and where it’s needed. Visit our COVID-19 press room to stay updated on our media interviews and activities, and follow us on Twitter to stay engaged.
Canada isn’t responding with foresight when it comes to COVID-19
This is an article by Gloria Novovic, a PhD Researcher at the Grounded and Engaged Theory Lab, University of Guelph. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Global problems require global solutions. With COVID-19, however, we’re seeing that our governance mechanisms don’t drive global solutions even when our lives depend on it.
This is a problem because it will lead to diminishing trust in public institutions and a dragged-out pandemic response, as we fail to prevent deaths, long-term disability and lasting economic hardship of millions.
To end this pandemic, Canada must act with foresight, but what does that mean?
Simple won’t cut it
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Canadians to, once again, get vaccinated: get your first shot, your second shot, your booster, vaccinate your children, and let’s get out of this pandemic for good, he said.
The problem is, we alone will not end this pandemic.
In the current global landscape, the virus outsmarted us. Global vaccine roll-out has been inequitable: less than three per cent of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated as the richest countries hoard vaccines, and refuse to support waivers on COVID-19 vaccine patent rights or to keep pharmaceutical companies from bullying middle- and lower-income countries.
As scientists warned, COVID-19 kept mutating, and the latest variant in the series — Omicron — largely escapes our immune resistance. Enter school closures, preventable deaths, chronic diseases, social isolation, anxiety, depression and so on.
But the answer is not to boycott boosters out of guilt, while globally, millions are waiting on their first dose. The sooner we all get our shot, the easier it will be to advocate for Canada and other countries to stop vaccine hoarding.
By March, G7 countries will have 1.4 billion surplus vaccine doses and we have seen our governments let them expire before.
This is not an issue of national versus global interest. We need a plan that encompasses both. Right now, there is no such plan.
What about international cooperation?
The G7 Summit in June 2021 ended with leaders of the seven richest countries promising to deliver an inadequate portion of vaccines to countries without supply — a promise on which they managed to under-deliver.
The announced measures included no future scenario mapping, no international mechanisms of collaboration that go beyond the ineffective charity models. This means we are failing to account for the challenges we can assume are ahead of us and failing to co-ordinate with our global partners on solving them.
Our leaders returned from the summit asking us to basically keep throwing buckets of water at a raging forest fire. As the fire spread, we grew frustrated with each other for not doing enough.
A different model, one based on collaboration, is possible.
Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela and political leaders across 20 countries, health experts and vaccine manufacturers organized an alternative summit, triggering agreements of scientific and economic collaboration.
Cuba developed its own highly effective vaccine and committed to equitable distribution, with exports to Vietnam and Venezuela in progress.
Pediatrician Peter Hotez and his team at Texas Children’s Hospital developed a vaccine produced in India and Indonesia, and are sharing patents, technology and making partnerships with the two countries, Bangladesh and South Africa with the goal of distribution across sub-Saharan Africa.
The issue is, as Dr. Hotez notes, G7 countries and global policy makers are not helping.
The fundamental problem with Canada’s COVID response
Currently, the COVID-19 response is backwards: the solutions are global yet policy-makers and governments are focused on reactive national and sub-national policies.
Global mechanisms (like the COVAX initiative) lack, as United Nations Secretary General António Guterres admitted, teeth — with limited funding and decision-making resources.
In panic and fear, the world’s richest countries replaced foresight and strategic planning with medieval tactics: put up the trenches, hoard resources, isolate the vulnerable, hold down the fort … too bad the enemy is airborne.
Places like Canada struggle with co-ordination between provincial and federal governments. Outdated approaches to federalism have resulted in insufficient collaboration around the procurement of essential goods and equipment, poor policy co-ordination (like travel and health policies), incoherent province-to-province health measures, inconsistent public messaging, and an isolationist view that disregards the consequences of global inaction.
Switching the script
As we enter 2022 with closed schools, overwhelmed hospitals and an isolated, tired and scared population we have a choice. We can keep blaming each other or act with fortitude and foresight. Canada’s public should listen to health experts, but also demand a coherent future-oriented strategy.
Our strategies must account for global, national and regional agendas. They must address risks and opportunities across public health, trade, international relations, infrastructure, social safety nets and public narratives. And methods to guide this work already exist.
Labelled as foresight, these include innovative models for strategic planning based on future-oriented risk and opportunity mapping, scenario-testing, solution-building and policy-making. Research groups (like the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies or the Futures of Social Innovation Lab at the Ontario College of Art and Design University), the UN are all using these approaches.
Countries around the world, from small island states like Cape Verde and Mauritius to global leaders in innovation like Rwanda and the European Union have all been investing in foresight capacity.
Canada should leverage foresight to strengthen its federal model and the COVID-19 response. Combining existing and the emerging data, exploring new possible pathways, addressing existing but also future risks and identifying new forms of partnerships is urgent.
This will require prioritizing public health over profits, upholding lived experiences, trusting technical experts and remaining adaptive. Canada’s strategy must account for federal and national mandates but also the importance of global engagement. Without it, we will be living on borrowed time, waiting for a new variant, a new booster, a new quick fix.
MUST JOIN EVENTS IN JANUARY – OPEN TO ALL
NP LTC Council webinar - New realities of navigating COVID-19 in LTC
Jan 13, 2022, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Please join us for our upcoming nurse practitioner (NP) long-term care (LTC) council webinar to be held on January 13, 2022. This is our regular monthly NP LTC Council that has been an important forum for NPs working in LTC to discuss clinical, operational, and policy-related issues in LTC, build networks, exchange knowledge, and inform RNAO’s advocacy work related to NPs and the LTC sector.
Join your NP colleagues working in LTC for a discussion about the Omicron variant, experiences during outbreaks and management, resident outcomes and more.
NP Insider - Be Powered for Change: Speak out for NPs
Jan 18, 2022, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
RNAO's Nurse Practitioner Interest Group (NPIG) is proud to bring members this NP Insider, so participants can continue to build their confidence, knowledge and capacity as nursing professionals.
Topic: Raising our voice as nurse practitioners at the annual general meeting (AGM). Generating ideas for resolutions to submit for AGM 2022.
This webinar will be hosted on Tuesday, Jan. 18 from 12 - 1 p.m. ET for NPIG members. Participants will participate in discussion around highlighting practice issues pertaining to NP practice and draft potential resolutions to be submitted for discussion at the RNAO AGM.
Presenters:
- Ifrah Ali, Board Affairs Coordinator, Executive Office, Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
- Sally Baerg, NP-PHC, MSc, MScN, CHPCN(C)
Strategies to Help Change Teams Successfully Implement the Person & Family-Centered Care (PFCC) Best Practice Guideline
Jan 18, 2022, 2:00pm - 2:45pm
About this Event:
This virtual presentation is designed to provide organizations and health-care providers with an overview of our experiences implementing the Person and Family-Centered Care (PFCC) best practice guideline (BPG). We will share some of our successes and learnings, discuss some of the barriers we faced and highlight strategies that we have used to ensure the successful implementation of this guideline.
During the presentation, we will discuss:
1. some of the barriers/challenges we faced when implementing the PFCC guideline
2. key implementation strategies that we have used as an organization when implementing the PFCC guideline
3. how we continue to ensure its sustainability during crises such as forest fire evacuations
We will also discuss how we have aligned the PFCC guideline implementation with our organization’s mission to improve Indigenous patient and family experience in our hospital.
Presenters:
Meghan Gilbart, BScN, RN, Chief Nursing Executive, Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital
Amanda Kaczmarek, Director of Quality and Risk, Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital
Best Practice Champions Virtual Workshop - Session 1
Jan 19, 2022, 9:00am - 12:00pm
The Best Practice Champions Network team has established a new, two-part Best Practice Champions Virtual Workshop to replace the in-person champions workshops. This free, online educational opportunity consists of a brief pre-recorded introductory video, and two live virtual sessions to be completed in sequential order.
The Best Practice Champions Virtual Workshop series will be offered monthly, with Session 1 and Session 2 taking place once a month. This will provide you with ample opportunity to select the live session that best suits your work schedule. This online educational opportunity can be completed individually or as a group.
For further details and registration, go here.
Wisdom in Wound Care Webinar Series
Jan 19, 2022, 12:00pm - 12:45pm
The Wisdom in Wound Care Webinar Series offers 11 monthly, 45-minute webinars hosted by RNAO and facilitated by wound care experts in Ontario. The webinar series will cover best practices in relation to acute and chronic wound prevention, assessment and treatment.
The mission of the webinar series is to reduce the physiological, psychological and the fiscal burden of wounds throughout Ontario by building clinical expertise using best practices related to wound care.
By the end of the webinar series, attendees will be able to explain:
- the appropriate best practices as they pertain to varying wound care issues; and
- how they can influence optimal person-centered outcomes.
Recordings of previous sessions are available to watch.
For details and registration, please go here.
MOH EOC Situational Report
We are posting each day the Daily Situational Reports from Ontario's MOH EOC at RNAO’s website. That way, you can access the Ministry’s guidance at any time.
For a detailed Ontario epidemiological summary from Public Health Ontario, you can go here.
According to the latest Situation Report #592 for January 11, the case count was as follows: 896,248 total, +7,951 change from yesterday; 10,399 deaths, 21 change from yesterday.
Staying in touch
Keeping in touch and being part of a community helps us get through challenging times. Keep telling us how we, at RNAO, can best support you. Send us your questions, comments, and challenges. Recommend ideas for articles and webinars. Write to me at <dgrinspun@rnao.ca> and copy to < ceo-ea@rnao.ca>. RNAO’s Board of Directors and our entire staff want you to know: WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!
Thank you for continuing to be there for your community, everywhere and in all roles! Together, in solidarity, we are stronger. Thanks for encouraging your colleagues, their loved ones and your communities to be fully vaccinated – including booster shots. Keep reminding them that COVID-19 is aerosol and that proper ventilation and N95 masking is not just preferred but necessary.
Let’s also be thoughtful and remember Dr. Tedros when he said that “#VaccineEquity is not an act of charity; it’s the best and fastest way to control the pandemic globally, and to reboot the global economy.” Canada has purchased more vaccines than what it needs, while the poorest countries in the world have almost nothing. Like with other challenges we face – systemic discrimination and climate change – we are not safe until everyone is safe. Vaccines for all – literally for all, across the world – must guide policy in the upcoming months. Let’s learn from the 22-month pandemic and take real action to build a better world.
To everyone – THANK YOU! Please take care of yourself and know that RNAO always stands by you!
Here’s one constant throughout the pandemic. The silver lining of COVID-19 has been to come together and work as one people for the good of all. Let’s join efforts to demand that political leaders protect patients, students, and workers – and secure #Vaccines4All.
Doris Grinspun, RN,MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), Dr(hc), FAAN, FCAN, O.ONT
Chief Executive Officer, RNAO
RECENT BLOG ITEMS:
21 Dec - RNAO addresses nursing crisis, Omicrom-led wave and preventing health-system collapse – go here.
14 Dec - What we know about Omicron two weeks after it became a variant of concern – go here.
14 Dec - Omicron variant caseload expected to 'rapidly escalate' in the coming days, Tam says – go here.
14 Dec - Repeal Bill 124 – RNAO asks for pledge of support from Members of the Provincial Parliament – go here.
14 Dec - Ontario’s nursing crisis: Next steps in #RepealBill124 campaign – go here.
7 Dec - RNAO’s continuing media profile: The November 2021 report – go here.
7 Dec - South African envoy calls on Canada to support waiver on COVID-19 vaccines – go here.
7 Dec - RNAO welcomes expansion of boosters and says Omicron is the #VaccineInjusticeVariant – go here.
28 Nov - Omicron edition: Uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty – go here.
28 Nov - The NHS staffing crisis is killing people – and this winter it will be even worse – go here.
28 Nov - A note to Premier Ford: Repeal Bill 124! – go here.
21 Nov - I’m an infectious disease doctor. Yes, I’m vaccinating our 5-year-old against COVID-19. Here is why you should too – go here.
21 Nov - Rich countries only shared 14% of COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to poorer nations – go here.
21 Nov - Nurses gather in Toronto to rally: Recap of #RepealBill124 rally and next steps – go here.
14 Nov - Nurses celebrate National Nurse Practitioner Week and call for scope expansion to improve access to the health system – go here.
14 Nov - Congratulations to all NPs during National Nurse Practitioner Week – go here.
14 Nov - Ontario nurses discuss the crisis in the profession during RNAO’s Fall Tour – go here.
14 Nov - Ontario’s RN understaffing crisis: Impact and solution – go here.
6 Nov - RNAO’s continuing media profile: The October 2021 report – go here.
6 Nov - Ontario’s economic statement signals government’s concerns with nursing human resources – go here.
6 Nov - RNAO deeply disappointed with Premier Ford’s decision on mandatory vaccination – go here.
We have posted earlier ones in my blog here. I invite you to look.