President Angela Cooper Brathwaite and CEO Doris Grinspun visited eight communities this fall to meet with RNs, NPs and nursing students from different chapters and regions. Grinspun visited Ottawa, Petrolia, Chatham and Windsor. Brathwaite met with members in Toronto, Sudbury, Timmins and Durham. Members shared their thoughts and concerns about nursing and health issues affecting their communities. 

In Petrolia, for instance, Grinspun met with long-term care RNs at Fiddick’s Nursing Home, where she heard about their challenges in a sector struggling with a troubling funding model. Currently, facilities with improved resident outcomes experience cuts. It is “absurd,” Grinspun told the Sarnia Observer on Oct. 4, suggesting the funding model is a disincentive to improve resident outcomes. Homes that perform well “should retain the funding and apply it to more programs,” Grinspun said.

In Sudbury, Brathwaite met with public health nurses who expressed concern about the health of Indigenous populations in the north. “The rate of suicide is higher among Indigenous people,” Brathwaite told CBC Sudbury on Oct. 31. Going forward, Brathwaite would like to see more collaboration with chiefs and other First Nations leaders to fill the gap in the health-care system. 

Other issues of concern that were raised by members hosting visits: the opioid crisis and RN replacement. In response to the feedback she received while on tour, Brathwaite says RNAO will continue its work on these issues, looking for solutions and seeking out a mix of programs and policies to address these challenges. “I will take the issues back to home office and (with RNAO) advocate for them,” Brathwaite said.