May/June 2019

To curb youth crime in Brockville, public health officials are speaking out in support of a municipal drug strategy. A multi-agency task force identified drug and alcohol use as one of the contributing issues behind the rise in youth crime, with the others being location, environment and family background.

A report, released on June 12 by the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare, is being celebrated for its call to implement a universal, single-payer, national pharmacare plan. “(RNAO has) been pushing for this for a long time,” says RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun.

To better understand what it means to practise in rural communities, medical students from Western University spent four days working alongside health-care professionals in Leamington in May. Yvonne Bauer, a staff nurse at Erie Shores Hospital, says the experience is important because health care is different in rural areas.

Sault Area Hospital is improving care for seniors through an Ontario Senior Friendly Hospital Strategy.

In 1989, i started working at a community detention centre as a correctional nurse. Up to then, I had 11 years of nursing experience, most of it in occupational health. Nothing prepared me for what I found locked away from society. 

Retired primary care RN Judie Surridge, 69, still remembers many of the patients and families she assisted during her nursing career. She recounts her experience helping a refugee in 2001 through her first pregnancy, providing the information she needed to navigate the immigration process.

RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun joined a number of health-care professionals at a media event May 13 to call for a stop to planned cuts to public health that were part of the provincial government’s first budget, released in April. By the end of May, Premier Doug Ford announced the cuts would not apply to the current fiscal year.

In June, Vanessa Burkoski received a 2019 Nursing Leadership Award from the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

 In May, RNAO member Barathi Vengadasamy received an Indigenous Services Canada  Award of Excellence in Nursing.

The second edition of RNAO’s best practice guideline (BPG) on violence, harassment and bullying against health workers is now available online.