Nursing Week - as seen by Orazietti, nurses' union

NEWS RELEASES

DAVID ORAZIETTI, MPP

ONTARIO NURSES' ASSOCIATION

************************ Orazietti announces support for Nursing week

McGuinty government training more nurses to ensure greater access to quality care

SAULT STE. MARIE - Nursing Week, which runs from May 10 to16, provides an opportunity to recognize the hard work and dedication that the nurses in Sault Ste. Marie bring to their jobs, David Orazietti, MPP announced today.

“Our government understands that nurses are an integral part of the health care system and we will continue to provide support for nursing education and an expanded role for nurse practitioners in our community,” said Orazietti. “On Friday morning I met with the local Registered Nursing Association of Ontario and we discussed provincial initiatives that are improving health care in the community as well as how we can work together to ensure that residents in Sault Ste. Marie have access to quality care close to home.”

Ontario is training more nurses to ensure all patients have access to quality health care.

In 2009 alone, 2,910 students graduated from Ontario’s nursing degree programs, which is an increase from 1,647 graduates in 2005.

In addition to the 29 nursing positions presently available at Sault Area Hospital and the recent investment of $25,000 for the Victoria Order of Nurses the McGuinty government has provided the following support for nurses, which includes:

- Over $900 million in nursing initiatives since 2003

- 10,000 more nursing positions created in Ontario since 2003; more than 900 nursing positions to be created in 2009-10

- Made Ontario one of the few jurisdictions in the world to offer a job guarantee to new nursing graduates

- $183 million for the Nursing Graduate Guarantee program

- Opened Canada’s first Nurse Practitioner-Led clinic in Sudbury; an additional 25 new clinics will come into operation by 2011-12 including one in Sault Ste. Marie

- Created the “Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner Program” to support registered nurses obtaining advanced education to fill vacant nurse practitioner positions

- Doubled the number of education spaces for educating nurse practitioners (from 75 to 150 spaces), and adding 50 more spaces over the next three years

- $94 million over six years for the Late Career Nurse Initiative

- $103 million to add more than 19,000 bed-lifts and safety equipment to reduce injuries

- $20 million for Clinical Simulation Equipment to better prepare nursing students for entering clinical practice

- $1 million annually to support tuition costs for nurses who wish to return to rural, remote or underserviced communities

- $5 million annually for the Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Education Program

- $93 million invested for nursing research and additional nursing education initiatives

- $5.5 million towards pilot projects to provide nurses working in a variety of settings with PDAs (hand-held computers)

- Increased the percentage of nurses working full-time by 13 percent (from 50 percent in 2003 to 62.9 percent in 2008)

- Invested in a $40 million Nursing Retention Fund, managed by our three major nursing partners, to help hospitals retrain and retain nurses

- Created the Nursing Education Initiative (NEI) which provides eligible nurses with up to $1500/year to access continuing education and professional development.

************************* Ontario Nurses' Association launches public campaign

Cutting Nurses, Cutting Care campaign to stop RN cuts

TORONTO (May 10, 2010) - It may be National Nursing Week 2010 – a week to celebrate the contribution of dedicated nurses across the country – but in Ontario today, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) is also launching an advertising and public awareness campaign regarding the nursing cuts occurring across the province.

“Nursing Week is a time to recognize the invaluable contribution RNs make to the health-care system,” notes ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. “But in Ontario, our skilled, professional RNs have been ‘recognized’ far too often as a target for cost-cutting exercises and lost their positions to balance the bottom line. ONA is fighting nursing cuts with our Cutting Nurses, Cutting Care campaign.”

ONA has tracked more than 2,000 RN cuts during the past year.

Registered nurses in several parts of the province have organized local actions to raise awareness among their communities of the threats to quality health care.

ONA’s campaign will amplify efforts to stop the nursing cuts that are degrading access to quality patient care.

Radio, transit shelter and newspaper ads will run in targeted cities across the province beginning today.

In addition, electronic TV board ads will appear in high-traffic locations in Toronto.

“For some time, our nurses have been worried that the savings being demanded by government of our health-care facilities have been focused on cutting nursing care hours for our patients, impacting their health outcomes with little attention paid to other costs in the system,” said Haslam-Stroud. “We hope more Ontarians will see our transit shelter ads or hear our radio ads and send a message to the government that cutting nurses is not acceptable.”

ONA is the union representing 55,000 front-line registered nurses and allied health professionals and more than 12,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in Ontario hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community and industry.

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