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What recruitment and retention initiatives/Healthy Work Environment (HWE) strategies are nursing employers currently implementing?2. What are the perceptions of nurse leaders and front line staff regarding the effectiveness of the retention initiatives? What is working and what isn’t?3. What are the specific recruitment and retention challenges being experienced by nursing employers?4. What are the main work environment concerns as perceived by nurse leaders and staff nurses? 5. What keeps nurses in their current jobs? 6. Are there generational differences regarding nurses’ job satisfaction?

McDonald's has had similar success getting established in hospitals

As Nancy Shute reported last month, health care shift workers may be at risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes because of the poor quality of food available in their workplaces.

there are other changes afoot in hospital cafeterias — attempts to make the food more healthful

But slashing fossil fuel use also presents greatest global opportunity to improve people’s health in 21st century, says Lancet and UCL commission

Climate change threatens to undermine half a century of progress in global health, according to a major new report.

The Globe and Mail Wed Jun 4 2014

In the 1950s and '60s, Canadians across the country decided to create a public health-care system, following Saskatchewan's pioneering reforms in the late 1940s. These changes were very controversial at the time, with many doctors opposing the "socialization" of services that were previously provided mostly on a private, for-profit basis. A half-century later, despite the many problems that plague our health-care system, the vast majority of us believe that universal access to publicly provided health care is the right thing for Canada.

Environmental policies implemented today need to be seen as investments in our future - investments that yield both a cleaner environment and a stronger economy. Keeping our air more breathable reduces the future costs of our public health-care system, and frees up resources for other things. Better protection of our forests and rivers improves our future potential for a wide range of industries that rely on these natural assets. Accepting that a strong economy and a healthy environment ultimately go hand in hand is the first step in what could be Canada's next major economic project. The second step is to explore the kinds of policies we could use to improve both. I'll address that issue in my next column.

Cornwall Standard Freeholder Wed Dec 16 2015

What would cause 116 staffmembers to leave an organization in under 10 years? In the case of the Glengarry Memorial Hospital, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions said it's low morale and it is affecting patient care. The OCHU is concerned the low staffmorale and high staffturnover rates are creating internal turmoil and taking a toll on patient care and wants the Minister of health to do something about it.

"The situation at the hospital should not be ignored by Ontario's health minister and we are again urging him to intervene and investigate what's going on at the hospital," said OCHU president Michael Hurley. The OCHU is the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the union at the hospital representing registered practical nurses, clerical, cleaning, dietary and other staff.

Providing care in the home also raises hopes of substantial cost savings for the government

If done well, moving care out of hospitals could improve patient care, while reducing health care spending. However, there are hidden costs, both financial and human, of moving care into the home that have received little public attention, including lower wages, riskier work environments and greater burdens on family caregivers.

A major source of expected savings from a shift to home care is lower wages

Canadians across the political spectrum want a bold challenge to the status quo—and it’s up to the NDP to provide it

For weeks, the corporate media has spouted a stern prediction: Canadians will flee in horror from the Leap Manifesto. We are a “modest shift people,” not “big shift people”. The New Democratic Party, merely by endorsing to debate the document, would court “irrelevance.” A new poll shows just how wrong they were: far from recoiling from the Leap Manifesto, people are embracing it. Among the large and growing number of Canadians who have heard about the Leap Manifesto, half support it. That includes a majority of New Democrats and Greens, half of Liberal voters, and even twenty percent of Conservatives.

prescribing antipsychotic drugs to residents of nursing homes who have dementia

Rarely do such patients ask to be treated: requests usually come from care staff. However, such requests do not result simply from a desire for a quiet life for staff. Nurses in such establishments often work with minimal staffing and comparatively little training and specialist support.

social isolation, an unfamiliar environment, inactivity, and boredom are as likely to be relevant to the emergence of difficult behaviour as the underlying dementia.

 Healthcare Quarterly, 11(4) 2008: 30-36

Abstract For three days in September 2007, chief executive officers (CEOs) from health systems and organizations across Canada gathered in Banff, Alberta, for the inaugural Healthcare CEO Leadership Summit. We came together to consider and debate two of the most pressing issues facing the transformation of our country's healthcare environment: health human resources (HHR) and public-private partnerships (P3s). (This gathering, from September 14 to 16, was made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from Hoffmann-La Roche Limited. HHR and P3s were selected as topics based on an extensive needs assessment carried out among participants prior to the meeting.)Frank McKenna, the former premier of New Brunswick and former ambassador to the United States, gave the plenary address at the summit. Tom Closson, the past president and CEO of Toronto's University Health Network, delivered a keynote lecture on HHR, while the president and CEO of Hoffman-La Roche Limited, Ronnie Miller, shared his insights on P3s. By listening to presentations from these experts, brainstorming in breakout sessions and openly discussing the topics as a group, summit participants arrived at several conclusions regarding the main challenges and opportunities associated with HHR and P3s. Fundamentally, we all agreed that successfully managing HHR and P3s is critical for healthcare organizations that are focused on serving patients better. In this article, I first set out some of the main elements that characterize Canada's transforming healthcare environment and that largely form the raison d'être for new approaches to HHR and for the emergence of P3s. I then present core findings that emerged from our meeting in Banff and add my views based on my own experience as president and CEO of Kingston General Hospital. Where appropriate, I also briefly present recent innovations that might serve as examples of possible routes forward.

In Ontario, the hazards of health care work were dramatically highlighted during the SARS crisis. Overall, 375 people contracted SARS in the spring of 2003. Over  three quarters were  infected in a health care setting, of whom 45% were health care workers.

Justice Archie Campbell led a commission to learn from SARS, and highlighted the danger for staff working in health care settings – and in this case, hospitals. The report opens by stating “hospitals are dangerous workplaces, like mines and factories, yet they lack the basic safety culture and workplace safety systems that have become expected and accepted for many years in Ontario mines and factories.”

Workplace injuries have been steadily declining over the past two decades.  In 1987, 48.9 of 1,000 working Canadians received some form of workers’ compensation for injury on the job, and this has declined continuously to 14.7 per 1,000 in 2010. While injury rates for health care workers have declined slightly over that same time period, they remain stubbornly difficult to change.

American Academy of Pediatrics urges doctors and politicians to protect children from environmental threats, such as natural disasters and heat stress

Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Such threats include natural disasters, heat stress, lower air quality, increased infections, and threats to food and water supplies.

The new program identifies high-touch objects and monitors their cleaning with marking gel used after patients leave the rooms and before cleaning. After cleaning, the room is surveyed for residual gel, showing where cleaning was not effective.

An observational survey is also done to supplement the assessment. Data is then easily collected electronically to analyze current cleaning processes and where they can be improved. Online reports can be generated for immediate feedback and then for sharing with staff for discussion.

"The Infection Control team continues to encourage and support the implementation of this program as a quality measure of what is already done well," says BGH Infection Control Manager Susan Pugh. "As per the Provincial Infectious Disease Advisory Committee (PIDAC), 'Some items in the health care environment have been shown to harbour pathogenic microorganisms. Cleaning disrupts transmission of these microorganisms from the contaminated environment to patients and health care providers.'"

Date: August 18, 2016 Author: Wendy Glauser, Jeremy Petch & Sachin Pendharkar

It’s something that a patient who is worried about a surgery or recovering from a trauma is unlikely to think about. But behind the scenes, plastic syringes, single-use gowns, sterile packaging, surgical instruments and much more are piling into dumpsters. While the amount of waste is difficult to quantify, a report from the Ontario Hospital Association estimates hospitals are responsible for at least 1% of non-residential landfill waste.

Hospital waste comes from areas like food, electronic and paper waste, but the biggest source is clinical care. It’s estimated that North American operating rooms alone are responsible for 20%-33% of total hospital waste. And a US study found that a single hysterectomy produced 20 pounds of waste in plastic, packaging, drapes, and so on (bio-waste was not included). The problem may be getting worse – due to patient safety, cost and convenience, more and more clinical instruments and supplies are being marked as “single use” and thrown out.

May 11, 2016

Citizens around the world are mobilizing this Saturday to assert their right to speak out, organize, and take action. As part of a Global Day for Citizen Action, people will be asked whether they are free to raise their voice and call for change.

Applying lessons learned from the harsh realities of the past and taking full advantage of the window of opportunity presented by the new government, the Voices alliance is putting forward an agenda for action to create enabling conditions for full, free civic engagement by Canadians from every background and belief.

Take time to recognize your staff for all that they do to optimize the health care physical environment during National Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week, October 24–30, 2010. You and your staff are important members of the health care team—your department keeps your facility operational. Because of all you do, there is power; running water; and a clean, comfortable, and safe environment for all who walk through your doors. What you think is ordinary can truly be thought of as extraordinary. Without you and your efforts, the doors of your facility would not open. All of us need to be recognized for what we do, and National Healthcare Facilities and Engineering Week provides you with the perfect time to share with others all that you and your staff do. By using the following resources, ASHE hopes to help make 2010 your best celebration ever.

The Ontario health minister believes the federal government should make health care spending a top priority even in times of financial trouble.

I think health care for our elders is a very high priority

that is what people expect of the federal government as well,” Matthews said. “So I think it is well within their ability to pay

Health Quality Council of Alberta

Of the nearly 12,000 survey packages sent out a year ago to family members of residents living in the province's 157 nursing homes, 70 per cent were completed and returned.

publicly operated nursing homes obtained significantly higher ratings compared to those run for a profit or on a voluntary basis.

the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec and the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux allowed Temcheff and colleagues to undertake their important longitudinal study on the association between childhood aggression and use of health care in adulthood

Temcheff and colleagues have been able to assemble a cohort of nearly 4000 people representing 95% of an original cohort for whom robust childhood data on aggression and linked data on use of health services were available 30 years later

a proportion of health service use at age 30–40 years can be predicted from childhood behaviour independently of level of education and childhood poverty