Ontario hospitals in Hamilton, Niagara, Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties are providing staff with pay if they need to self-isolate due to potential contact with a COVID-19 patient. This is a move that RNAO actively pushed for. “It was never right to put the burden of sick time or isolation time on the backs of nurses that are putting themselves on the line,” says CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun. This much-needed compensation will help control the transmission of COVID-19 and protect staff and patients, she adds. The policy change comes after RNAO’s strong advocacy for compensation, and following a letter from an emergency physician group at Hamilton Health Sciences, which wrote to the minister of health about its “deep concern” that nurses weren’t being paid during self isolation. (CBC News, Feb. 17)