NP Lhamo Dolkar
As I reach the three-quarter mark of my first year as your president, I want to share what an absolute privilege and honour it has been to meet and engage with members.
In September, I participated in RNAO’s annual Fall Tour, which gave me a chance to travel the province and visit members in their workplaces and communities. It was an opportunity for your executive team – myself, Immediate Past-President Dr. Claudette Holloway and CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun – to hear directly from you – our members.
From the care we provide to patients and residents, to system challenges we encounter as nurses, and the underlying social and environmental determinants that shape a person’s health and wellbeing – such as poverty, access to affordable housing and the state of our environment – we discussed it all. We also talked about solutions and how we can collectively strengthen nursing practice, our profession and the health system.
These interactions gave us an important window into nurses’ practice and what health-care organizations, including Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) Chatham Kent Hospice, part of the Chatham Kent Ontario Health Team, are doing to provide evidence-based and compassionate care. During this visit, I was struck by the lengths taken to put thoughtfulness into every nook and corner. Even the placement of doors and bathrooms highlighted the excellence and sensitivity to the delivery of person-centred care (foundational to all BPSOs). Read more about Chatham Kent in BPGs stand the test of time.
I also visited with members in Windsor, and their energy was contagious. Their sense of connection to each other as nursing professionals and to the values of RNAO was palpable. They shared their concerns about the lack of access to harm reduction and supervised consumption services in Windsor, and the impact on people struggling with substance use. Those challenges have worsened with the lack of political will to do what nurses know is backed by evidence. Read more about this in The landscape of change.
Thank you for your trust and for your commitment to RNAO. We have much to be proud of, and much to anticipate as we continue to drive positive change.
During my visit with members of London’s Middlesex-Elgin Chapter, I had the opportunity to speak with fellow NPs. We all understand the importance and the impact of the advocacy work done by RNAO and its members for equitable access to health care across Ontario and the need for nurses to be politically engaged. Just as I was finalizing this column, we witnessed how powerful that advocacy is.
RNAO has been forceful about fully utilizing the expertise of Ontario’s 5,300 NPs to address the primary care crisis. We have called for fair compensation for NPs within our publicly funded system. The media has reported on RNAO’s push to have the Ontario government speed up its process for approving publicly funded NP-led clinics, and how Minister of Health Sylvia Jones wrote to her federal counterpart, Mark Holland, asking for Ottawa to take action.
Minister Holland announced (on Jan. 10) that “any medically necessary physician-equivalent services provided by regulated health professionals, such as nurse practitioners, are to be paid” through public funding. This is a major step for the 2.5 million Ontarians who do not have regular access to primary care. And RNAO will eagerly continue to work with the Ontario government to expand the utilization of NPs in primary care.
In November, I met with many interest group, chapter and region representatives at the fall assembly meeting in Toronto. I must commend Andrea Keller, Una Ferguson and Paula Manuel for delighting us with their wisdom, enthusiasm and numerous examples of how they and others are leading change in membership retention and recruitment and advocating for healthy public policy.
We also talked about members’ instrumental role when meeting politicians for Queen’s Park on the Road, Queen’s Park Day and Take Your MPP To Work events. With the upcoming elections – both federal and provincial – we will ensure that nurses’ voices are front-and-centre for the political parties fielding candidates and for the voting public.
RNAO continues to lead as the first nursing organization in the country to issue a non-partisan federal election platform that prioritizes essential issues, including: safe nurse staffing; scope of practice for NPs and RNs; the primary care crisis; protecting and enhancing our publicly funded system; accessible housing; the toxic drug crisis; and climate action. Premier Doug Ford called a provincial election for Feb. 27, 2025, and RNAO prepared a provincial platform with recommendations in five key areas: nursing; health care; the social determinants of health; the environmental determinants of health; and increasing fiscal capacity and reducing income and wealth inequality.
RNAO, as an association, turns vision into action and impact. These events reflect the collective strength and dedication of our members. In the time I have been in this role, I have come to appreciate the enormity of the office and the responsibility I have to members. I am both humbled and emboldened by it.
Thank you for your trust and for your commitment to RNAO. We have much to be proud of, and much to anticipate as we continue to drive positive change.