Nursing Week May 10-16, 2021 with Nightingale’s Birthday May 12

WHO have designated the theme as “Nurses: A Voice To Lead”, with the sub theme of “A Vision For Future Health Care” and ONA’s as “Still Standing, Still Strong, Still Proud!” Activities with the restrictions are being been planned with bookmarks and poster cards printed. Please contribute to the web with an article or just your thoughts

Awards (presented during Nursing Week) 

Nursing Now Awards

This award was celebrated  Wed May 12 at 2pm  with Doris Grinspun CEO – RNAO hosting and supported  by ONA, WeRPN, and RNAO. It replaces the Toronto Star Nightingale Awards cancelled  2 years ago. 213 submissions were submitted. The recipients this year were:
RN: Mahoney Hines, pain and systems management consultant in the Niagara Region – a very skilled palliative care nurse,  passionate and dedicated.
RPN: Sheri Bruder, resource nurse at Brantford General-a collaborative spirit and outstanding leader.
NP: Aric Rankin, Aboriginal Health Center in Hamilton working in collaboration to develop programming for chronic disease.

Salute to Nursing Hero Awards

Celebrating Canada’s Nurses and presented by Hospital News, a monthly publication.
Over 200 nurses across Canada were nominated.
First prize went to Ordia Kelly RN and Team Leader General Medicine from Sunnybrook Health Sciences for her outstanding leadership and support of her colleagues.
For more info click here go to Hospital News May 2021 to view other winners and  honorary mention page 11-54

This Nursing Week, We Want Action, Not Accolades

By Enxhi Kondi Contributor to the Toronto Star Monday, May 10, 2021

National Nursing Week is upon us, but the mood is less than celebratory. To call the past year a challenge for nurses would be an understatement and to call us heroes at this point would be an empty platitude. Yet, these are the sentiments that we continue hearing in the media and from our provincial leaders, in stark contrast to the reality nurses are experiencing. A year ago, nurses were speaking out against Bill 124, which limits our annual pay increase to a measly 1 per cent, below even the rate of inflation. Since then, demands for and of nurses have reached unprecedented levels. 

Nurses have not only been working with markedly increased workloads, but often also outside of their scopes of practice due to emergency provincial orders and redeployments. The stress, trauma, workload and risk of our jobs have increased, without any reflective change to our compensation, nor to the restrictive Bill 124. Unsurprisingly, many nurses have left the bedside in the past year, with reports suggesting that many more are planning on doing so after the pandemic as well. To blame nurses for this, and to accuse them of weakness, is an insulting and privileged stance, as is expecting professionals to increase service provisions in riskier environments while accepting unmodified wages and unfair legislation. Nurses are resilient and adaptable to a continually changing health-care environment and compassionate for those suffering during this pandemic, but we cannot be expected to tolerate being taken advantage of for these traits. The service and contributions to health-care that nurses deliver have become invaluable, irreplaceable and held to some of the highest professional standards, yet our compensation has lagged behind. As nurses, we are proud of what we do and are no strangers to hard work. We know we are heroes — and frankly, we have been heroes even before a public health crisis forced people to take notice — but we are not superhuman. Without some serious changes, the consequences of nursing burnout will continue to get worse and far-reaching.

The health-care system in Ontario has been struggling for a long time, shouldering the ever-increasing burden of treating health problems fuelled by worsening socioeconomic inequities, increasing patient populations served by outdated facilities, and the reality that people are living longer with chronic conditions and need long-term treatments. All of this continues to trend in the direction of increasing demand for health-care workers, particularly nurses as the fundamental bedside providers. The fallout of a nursing exodus from the workforce would be brutal. Historically, the nursing profession has faced many challenges in becoming self-regulated and developing its own body of literature, standards, and practices unique from other health-care professions. Now, as nurses once again advocate for the continuity and strength of our profession, we will meet the challenge with the same integrity and bravery with which we practice.

This nursing week, the theme is action. We need our provincial leaders to be heroes as well — to hear us, support us, and reverse decisions that threaten our profession.

Enxhi Kondi  is an Emergency  Department Nurse in the GTA