To raise awareness about concussion and its related symptoms, Nipissing University nursing students Jacob Belanger and Selena Sciuk led a one-hour presentation to Grade 12 biology students in February to talk about how to identify a concussion, and what to do if you have one. As part of a pilot program called Brain Waves – a partnership between Nipissing’s nursing students and a national injury prevention charity called Parachute Canada – the pair addressed students at North Bay’s St. Joseph-Scollard Hall. They shared insight about symptoms, long-term effects, and standards for concussion treatment. “Concussion awareness is crucial in this population to ensure they are seeking proper assistance following head trauma to avoid long-lasting effects and complications,” Belanger says. Student athletes often carry a sense of pride in remaining physically healthy and uninjured, he says, which can lead to not reporting symptoms. Brain Waves was launched to inform high school students about the different parts of the brain and injury prevention. (North Bay Nugget, Feb. 27)

A committee of MPPs is getting advice on what should be included in the next provincial budget. RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun and the association’s senior economist Kim Jarvi presented RNAO’s policy priorities during a Jan. 29 meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.

The association’s submission included 21 recommendations focused on improving access to nursing and health care, strengthening the health system, boosting living standards, protecting the environment, and creating a fairer tax system. 

In nursing and health care, RNAO urges that hospitals be provided with dedicated funding to immediately post and fill 10,000 RN positions that are vacant. And to ensure the right nurse is in the right place – given patients’ complex care needs – there are recommendations mandating that all new hires in acute care and cancer care hospitals be RNs; and that all first home care assessments be conducted by RNs.

RNAO’s submission also emphasizes the importance of ensuring health providers work to their full scope of practice, including measures that authorize RNs to order diagnostic tests for common ailments (such as sore throats and urinary tract infections) and prescribe medications. It also suggests the removal of barriers that prevent NPs from practising to their full scope, such as point-of-care testing. 

In her presentation, Grinspun told the government’s finance committee that the health system must be strengthened by modernizing the archaic funding models that hobble the long-term care sector and penalize nursing homes when they improve resident outcomes.   

RNAO says all nursing home residents would be better served by homes adopting best practices that address care around issues such as falls prevention, wound care, and the use of restraints.    

As it related to Indigenous peoples, RNAO calls on the Ontario government to support Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. Grinspun also spoke about the need to expand access to consumption and treatment services to all communities in need. 

When it comes to the environment, RNAO says the government must recognize that climate change is already affecting the health of people in the province. It wants the government to develop a climate change plan that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The province must also work with its federal and municipal counterparts to ensure transit expansion as well as measures to encourage cycling and walking.   

RNAO says that the revenue to pay for its recommendations can be found if the government adopts a more progressive tax system and requires polluters to pay for the full cost of the pollution they create, including carbon emissions. 

This year’s budget is expected in early spring. For a summary of RNAO’s recommendations, visit RNAO.ca/policy/submissions.

A new network of advocates focused on people who are homeless in Toronto has come together to create the Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN). Two RNAO members sit on the group’s steering committee: street nurses Cathy Crowe and Roxie Danielson. As a front-line RN at Toronto’s Inner City Family Health Team, Danielson does outreach work with people who do not have a place to live and says she has clients who prefer to live outside because of the shortcomings of the current shelter and respite system. While she is glad the system is there, she admits it could be a lot better. SHJN is using a two-prong approach to combat the shelter and housing crisis. Its first objective is to expand the shelter system, which needs 2,000 additional shelter beds. Another goal is to provide more affordable, supportive housing. “On one hand, it’s really positive that the shelters and respite (centres) are there, because they get people off the streets and connected to resources,” Danielson says. The downfall, she suggests, is overcrowding and insufficient staffing.

Long-time RNAO member Doreen O’Sullivan (seated) was sworn in as a municipal councillor for North Grenville in December. The RN campaigned on a platform to improve sidewalks, bike paths and trails to encourage citizens to be active. 

O’Sullivan was a member of North Grenville’s active transportation board as a citizen. She attended meetings and shared her views on traffic, speed and safety in the area. She says, eventually, people began to tell her that she should run for council. So she did. 

A feature on nurses who became politicians was included in the Sept/Oct 2018 issue of RNJ (From Practice to Politics), and like those political counterparts, O’Sullivan believes her experience as an RN will help her in this new phase of her career. 

“It’s like an extension of being a nurse,” she says. “I’m advocating for people and trying to make a healthier community.” 

O’Sullivan worked in a variety of positions at Ottawa Hospital over more than four decades as an RN. She says her work in quality and patient safety is especially helpful because she is used to looking at the evidence, and conducting needs assessments. She’s seen how evidence and technology have changed over her career, and believes both are vital to improve local communities. 

Kindness and inclusivity by clinicians have a bigger impact than some may believe, say researchers at Western University and the University of British Columbia. A new study, published in The Milbank Quarterly, a journal for population health and health policy, shows a clear link between an equity-oriented health-care approach (e.g. welcoming and inclusive behaviour between patients and clinic staff) and better health outcomes in marginalized or impoverished patients. RN Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, the study’s co-author and a professor at Western’s Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, says the study is about paying attention to the way we interact with people. 
“It makes health-care providers think differently when they adopt this approach,” she says. “It sounds very simple, but in a busy health-care environment, when there’s time pressure and other things, sometimes those really fundamental things get put to the side.” The study assessed patients over a 24-month period at four clinics – two in B.C., one in London, and another in Lambton County. (The London Free Press, Dec. 19) 
 

Three Toronto nursing schools have teamed up to provide their nursing students with skills-building opportunities in practice areas they may not be exposed to during clinical placements. Created by Centennial College, George Brown College and Ryerson University, the virtual hospital simulation games educate students in a safe environment while immersing them in complex, interactive and dynamic storylines that replicate real-life situations. “Even if you don’t get a placement in (a specific clinical) area, you can still get exposure to that area (through the games) and see if it’s something you do well at and might be interested in,” says recent Centennial graduate Renee Shugg. The games lead students through a series of decision points, with patients acting out practice scenarios. At each decision point, the user either makes a correct decision and continues, or makes an incorrect decision and views the consequences. When making an incorrect decision, the player is provided with feedback. “Having those simulations before entering that practice area made me better prepared than just reading my textbooks,” Shugg says. (Toronto Sun, Jan. 6)