A pediatric vaccination clinic at Children’s Hospital, part of London Health Sciences Centre, is addressing the stress and anxiety children can often feel when getting needles. The clinic was initially launched as a pilot project during the pandemic (2021). It has since received provincial funding that allows it to become permanent. The clinic has helped more than 300 children and the hospital expects the number to double within the next year. “Our goal is to work with each child and their family to come up with a game plan that will allow that child to successfully receive their vaccine on their own terms,” NP Leah Ethier said. The clinic supports babies as young as six months and children and young adults with special needs up to 18 years of age. Its success rate (vaccinations administered without requiring a second visit) is 92 per cent.  (London Free Press, June 18)

Niagara Health’s Wound Care team is helping to provide care for patients who may be dealing with serious issues, such as sepsis. RN Abi Osisanwo is one of five nurses trained to identify wounds early and provide appropriate treatment. Some illnesses, such as necrotizing fasciitis, can result in scarring, loss of a limb, sepsis and death. The wound care team at Niagara Health works collaboratively with nurses, doctors and other health-care workers to help patients who may come to hospital with pressure injuries or bed sores. “The body is amazing,” Osisanwo said. It “…heals itself but our role is to help prevent complications, such as infection or inflammation that would delay healing.” Interested in learning more about wound care? Attend the self-directed Wound Care Champion Program, designed by Wounds Canada in collaboration with RNAO. (St. Catharines Standard, May 30)

Sudbury’s only sanctioned supervised consumption site (SCS) – formally called Minoogawbi, La Place, The Spot and informally known as The Spot – was forced to close its doors at the end of March. The city terminated its funding of the site at the end of December 2023, suggesting the province step in. The site continued to stay open through March thanks to donations. RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway was in Sudbury in January, sharing with local media that the SCS affects more than just the clients it serves. “When you fund this kind of treatment centre, it’s going to have an impact and reduce pressures on hospitals and emergency rooms,” she said (CTV News, Jan. 26). In the same CTV News story, RN and Sudbury and District chapter executive member Neil Stephen added that SCSs “see a reduction in local crime rates.” SafePoint, an SCS in Windsor, also closed on Jan. 1 and is seeking funding. However, the government has frozen approvals on SCS applications while it reviews safety protocols around the sites. This freeze is having a direct impact on those who rely on these services. “People who use these toxic substances recognize that they could die. (With these sites) they have access to not only safe supply, people who will witness in case they collapse but also have access to people who accept them for who they are – who help them try to get other services and give them medical care,” said RN and harm reduction advocate Kathy Moreland (AM 800, April 2). Join the more than 1,200 people who have already signed RNAO’s Action Alert to call on the premier to lift the freeze on SCS approvals.

Federal minister of health Mark Holland introduced Bill C-64, An Act respecting pharmacare, in the House of Commons on Feb. 29, 2024. This initial stage of national pharmacare – which RNAO has long advocated – will include coverage for contraception and diabetes medications, once provinces sign on to the plan. This will ensure Canadians are able to get the medications they need without the worry of how to pay. In a media release, RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway said “this legislation is significant because it brings us one step closer to RNAO’s long-standing push for a universal program. When fully realized, it will advance equity and fairness in our health system.” RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun said that nurses support pharmacare, but the program must expand. “It goes without saying that nurses stand fully behind (the plan). We also stand fully behind...a single payer system. Our end goal...is that it be comprehensive," Grinspun said, adding that she wants Ontario to be the first province to sign an agreement with the federal government. (Benefits and Pensions Monitor, March 7)

Daniel Lau, RNAO’s director of membership and services for 22 years, stepped down from his role in January 2024 and is set to retire in June. Continuing to work as a special resource to CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun, Lau says he is immensely proud of the growth of RNAO and will miss working with the team. “During my time at RNAO, membership grew from less than 15,000 to more than 50,000,” he says proudly.

Joining the senior management team is RN Morgan Hoffarth. “I thank Daniel – deeply – for his immense contributions to RNAO,” says CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun. “Daniel leaves big shoes to fill and I am confident that RNAO’s membership growth will continue to cross many milestones under Morgan’s leadership.”

Hoffarth was RNAO president from 2020 to 2022 and says: “During my presidency, one of the areas I focused on was membership and the importance of supporting and engaging with members. The transition to director of the membership department is aligned with my vision as president. I believe RNAO membership is critical for nurses across the province.”

Hoffarth attended McMaster University, where she obtained a BScN. She also has a master’s degree in nursing from York University. Having worked in both acute care and long-term care settings during her career, Hoffarth’s most recent role was director of care at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

RN Jorge Santos has the unique experience of getting to work alongside one of his former patients at Toronto’s Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. Santos’ colleague is Emily Chan, a social worker who, until the age of six, underwent physical rehab at the hospital. Santos says the experience of working together 30 years later has been incredible. “Working with her is just – too special. It’s so amazing because I was part of her development…she showed me a picture of us when she was two (years old). When I saw that picture, I had tears in my eyes,” said Santos. Chan says she’s looking forward to helping other children with disabilities regain their full independence. (Global News, Jan. 23)

RNAO’s Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) Program is again expanding its reach beyond Canadian borders. Two organizations in Mexico – the University of Monterrey (UDEM) and Christus Muguerza, a health organization that includes 15 hospitals – have joined the program with a promise to implement BPGs related to pain management, falls and vascular access. A signing ceremony took place on March 19 in the city of Monterrey, Mexico.

"We’re proud that the BPSO program has expanded to more than 1,500 health organizations globally and is considered the gold standard for quality care and teaching," RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun says of the program she founded, and that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023. "We look forward to working with Mexican leaders to support them as they engage in this social movement of science, implementing guidelines and evaluating their positive impact."

Read more about these new international partnerships in the newsroom at RNAO.ca

RNAO has changed the name of the Newly Graduated Nurse membership fee category to New RN in Ontario. The change now includes internationally educated nurse (IEN) associates. IENs who are newly registered with the College of Nurses of Ontario and are eligible to practise in the province are eligible for free RNAO membership thanks to the generosity of HUB International, one of the association’s affinity partners. Learn more about this new category on RNAO.ca

NP Beth Hayhoe has been volunteering with Toronto’s Yonge Street Mission for nearly 30 years. The organization recently spent $3 million to expand its health and dental centre for youth in the city’s downtown neighbourhood. The site – which went from a 700-square-foot basement to a 4,600 square-foot space thanks solely to donations – provides care for people between 16 and 24 who are in precarious living situations. Eye exams, dental care, physiotherapy, mental health care and podiatry care are among the services provided, with wraparound supports such as employment and housing. Hayhoe says many of her clients have grown up without a lot of support in their lives. She hopes that with a newly renovated centre dedicated to serve youth, they will see that “they’re valuable enough to make this beautiful place for them and to have people come and take care of them.” (CBC News, March 2)

Following the intense and exhaustive work of an expert panel, researchers, policy makers, people with lived experience, and the guideline development team at RNAO, the association’s newest BPG was previewed during a webinar in March, six weeks before its official release during Nursing Week 2024 in May. Clinical Practice in a Digital Health Environment is the result of a years-long development process that included the determination of scope for the BPG and the research and development of key evidence-based recommendations that will help nurses to strengthen their professional practice as today's health environment becomes more digitized.

Watch for details of RNAO’s various Nursing Week events for full details on the upcoming launch and publication. (RNAO.ca/news)