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!

2022 Nursing Now Ontario Awards: Celebrating nursing's best

Nov. 25, 2021. Nominations are open for the 2022 Nursing Now Ontario Awards

The work nurses do each and every day to improve people's health deserves recognition and celebration. COVID-19 has revealed to us how resilient Ontario nurses are and their enduring commitment to ensuring people receive the care they need despite the obstacles a global pandemic presents.

The NHS staffing crisis is killing people – and this winter it will be even worse

With staff quitting at the National Health Service (the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK, or NHS) over poor conditions and a recruitment black hole, a pay raise for nurses is the least Sajid Javid – the UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, should do. This is the main argument in a 26 November article by Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. Does it resonate regarding conditions in Ontario?

Ontario nurses discuss the crisis in the profession during RNAO’s Fall Tour

For the past 22 months, nurses across the province have been working tirelessly and diligently to care for patients and residents amid a relentless pandemic. To make sure their voices are heard, RNAO will be checking in with nurses and nursing students this month through a virtual Fall Tour. RNAO will hear nursing struggles and aspirations from more than 10 Ontario regions and check the pulse on the association’s next steps of escalating demands with government and employers.

Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement

I have been humbled and honoured to receive the 2021 Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing’s board of directors “for demonstrated exemplary achievements in nursing throughout her lifetime.”

Thanksgiving long weekend

RNAO pays tribute to the thousands of nurses and other health-care workers who are serving Ontarians over this Thanksgiving long weekend.

While many Canadians will celebrate with a Thanksgiving dinner, nurses and other health-care workers will continue to care for persons in hospitals, long-term care homes, their homes and on the streets of this province.