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Since 2013, 15 long-term care facilities failed to staff enough RNs, documents say

Jan 14, 2016

May 16 is Personal Support Worker Day. PSWs are increasingly providing the majority of direct care services to elderly or ill patients who live in long-term care institutions or who receive home care.

Richards noted that “they [PSWs] are constantly on the go … they have very little time to actually sit down and provide comfort to residents and build that important relationship between themselves as caregivers with the residents and their family members”.

There is a great deal of variation in what PSWs do, where they work, and how they are supervised. This has made many argue that there must be more standardized training and regulation of PSWs. Others point out that it is at least as important to ensure that their working conditions allow PSWs to provide the compassionate and high quality care that their clients deserve.

Every LPN owes it to themselves and their colleagues to make an informed choice about the future of our independent profession. HEU has a clear vision, a solid record of achievement, and an unwavering commitment to our success. BCNU does not. Before you cast your ballot learn why BCNU is the wrong union for LPNs. And why BCNU will always put rns ahead of LPNs.

Raising entry-to-practice credentials (ETPC) in health disciplines is the new pandemic.

Employers never demand increased ETPC; on occasion they explicitly oppose it. No one has ever produced evidence that those practicing with the about-to-be-abandoned credential were harming the public. Governments never instigate the changes.

increasing the credential does not necessarily mean more training

The Model of Care Initiative in Nova Scotia is making a positive difference for patients, health care providers and the health system. A New Way to Deliver Care

This new way of delivering care uses information on the typical needs of patients on the unit (such as their medical condition, whether they can move around on their own, family support, etc.) to determine how care is organized and who delivers that care. Streamlined processes, faster access to information, and modern technology support staff to provide the safest and best possible patient care.

Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to design and implement a new model of care provincially and at the same time conduct a rigorous evaluation of its effects on patients, health care providers, and the health care system overall.

The latest Canadian Institute for Health Information data shows that the total number of RNs and LPNs in the country continues to rise. Hopefully, this trend will continue or even accelerate so that we can reclaim the nurse to population ratio we had in the early 1990s.

Several other factors play into the problem of nurse workload.

there is an increase in the complexity of care

NBNU has developed three new television spots with the slogan “There Is No Substitute For a Registered Nurse.”

February 26, 2014 11:45 am - 1:30 pm Hilton Toronto 145 Richmond Stre

Dr. Anne Snowdon, RN, BSCN, MSC, PHD

Consumers are demanding more choice and greater opportunities for the customization of their health and wellness regimens and are actively managing their own health journey through tools accessed outside the conventional healthcare system. But are health systems ready and able to transform to meet these shifting patient requirements?

Ontario Nurses' Association Calls for LHINs to Put Quality Care Back on the Agenda, Halt Health Care PrivatizationHAMILTON, ON, Jan. 28, 2014 (Menafn - Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) --Ontario's 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) must stop cutting the quality and safety of health care and sending public services to for-profit companies, said the President of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) today.Speaking to the Standing Committee on Social Justice, Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN, spoke of the urgent need for LHINs to improve, not erode, public health care in the province.

November 22, 2013   |   Volume 17 Issue 45 AHS accused of plan to cut RN positions

Alberta Health Services wants to cut 177 nursing jobs in the province, the NDP claims. It released an AHS internal report that says the optimal number of registered nursing positions in major hospitals is fewer than it is now.

Long-term care facilities (nursing homes) in British Columbia consist of a mix of for-profit, not-for-profit non-government, and not-for-profit health-region-owned establishments.  This study assesses the extent to which staffing levels have changed by facility ownership category.

From 1996 to 2006, crude mean total nursing hours per resident-day rose from 1.95 to 2.13 hours in for-profit facilities (p=0.06); from 1.99 to 2.48 hours in not-for-profit non-government facilities (p<0.001); and from 2.25 to 3.30 hours in not-for-profit health-region-owned facilities (p<0.001). The adjusted rate of increase in total nursing hours per resident-day was significantly greater in not-for-profit health-region-owned facilities.

While total nursing hours per resident-day have increased in all facility groups, the rate of increase was greater in not-for-profit facilities operated by health authorities.

May 9, 2014

May 12 to 18 is National Nursing Week 2014. CUPE National President Paul Moist and CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Charles Fleury wish a happy Nursing Week to all of CUPE’s nurses. In a letter sent to CUPE locals, Moist and Fleury affirm that Nursing Week is a chance to recognize all nurses for the indispensible frontline care that they provide. CUPE proudly represents tens of thousands of registered practical nurses (RPNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs). We are also very proud to count several hundred registered nurses (RNs) as CUPE members. “We applaud CUPE members and staff who have worked for decades to advance nursing team issues,” wrote Moist and Fleury. “These include: fighting for proper workloads and staffing; negotiating higher shift premiums and compensation increases; advocating for full utilization of our skills; and, collaborative or team nursing.”

May 12 2014

Welcome to National Nursing Week 2014!

Mental health nursing is a complex and challenging specialty and I am very proud that a number of our RNs have elected to become certified through the Canadian Nurses Association’s national certification program. Similarly, some of our RPNs have eaRNed a college certificate in mental health nursing.

Toronto Star Sat May 9 2015

Roushad Omar-Ali is relaxing on his comfy sectional watching a cooking show as the doorbell rings and Lesley Rodway lets herself in. "How are you feeling today?" the registered nurse asks cheerily as she studies the chart with his health data. "She's pretty good at what she does," Omar-Ali offers when Rodway disappears to set up his dialysis machine in the bedroom. The Ajax resident has had his share of hospital stays for a stroke, a bad fall and a pacemaker implant. And there's no doubt where he'd rather be for his daily dialysis treatment.

The good thing about this is you get to hook yourself up whenever you want," he says. "At the hospital, you sit there and wait and wait whereas at home, as soon as it's done, I disconnect myself." It's thanks to nurses like Rodway that Omar-Ali can be treated in the comfort and convenience of his own home. Arranged through Community Care Access Centres (CCAC), government-funded visits by registered nurses and registered practical nurses provide a range of services including post-surgical, wound and palliative care, IV antibiotics, dressing changes and cancer treatment. (University-educated rns care for patients with more complex needs while RPNs, who have attended community college, take on less complex cases.) "Patients don't really want to be in hospital," says Dianne Martin, executive director of the Registered Practical Nurses' Association of Ontario (RPNAO). "At home it feels good, they feel in control and more like they're in the driver's seat." They tend to heal faster and are safer from infections, Martin adds. It is also far cheaper to treat someone at home: an average of $42 per visit compared to $842 per day for a hospital bed.

May 8, 2015 Throughout National Nursing Week – May 11 to 17, 2015 – HEU salutes the dedicated professionalism our nursing members bring to health care’s front lines. We are proud to represent more than 1,400 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs), who work in B.C.’s residential care homes, supporting seniors and others who require round-the-clock care. “Every day, HEU nurses are making a huge difference in the lives of patients and residents throughout B.C. And they’re doing it under very difficult conditions,” says the union’s secretary-business manager Jennifer Whiteside. “Like others on the patient care team, they’re dealing with chronic short staffing, increasingly unsafe working conditions, and ongoing threats to their job security from private owners and operators in long-term care.” In the face of those and other challenges Whiteside says, “We’re with our nurses, every step of the way, fighting for fair contracts that value their work, improve the care, and make our health care facilities safer for workers and residents ” As part of nursing' week, LPN Day is celebrated on May 13. And as a division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), HEU stands with tens of thousands of nurses across the country to mark National Nursing Week.

April 22, 2015

After a dust-up between nursing groups last fall, the Saskatchewan Association of Licensed Practical Nurses is going ahead with four new bylaws to regulate the profession.

The bylaws will standardize educational requirements for LPNs providing four types of specialized care: advanced foot care, advanced orthopaedics, hemodialysis care, and perioperative care. Delegates will vote on the bylaws at the group's annual general meeting in Regina Wednesday.

Sudbury Northern Life Staff  | May 26, 2015 -

In response to budget constraints in hospitals, some organizations are reverting to models of functional nursing — a task-oriented model that delivers fragmented care — and replacing registered nurses (RNs) with less qualified health-care providers.

The Sudbury Star Mon Sep 28 2015

The union representing a group of registered practical nurses at Health Sciences North is protesting their new assignments. Sixteen RPNs from the nephrology unit have been reassigned as renal aides. CUPE said Thursday their skills remain necessary to the operation of the program; however, their statuses, titles and salaries have been negatively impacted. "The hospital took it upon themselves to say they didn't need the RPNs in that unit anymore, so they basically reassigned the RPNs to a new position, called renal aides," Dave Shelefontiuk, president of CUPE Local 1623, which represents the RPNs, said Thursday. "When you get reassigned, you have no choice in the matter."

Shelefontiuk said many of the reassigned employees are seasoned RPNs, some with more than 20 years experience in the hospital setting. "Registered practical nurses are required by the College of Nurses of Ontario to maintain their standard of practice and to practice to the full extent of their skills, whatever their new designation may be," he added in a media release. Shelefontiuk said he wants their titles retained and, with three years of post-secondary education, pointed out an RPN can do "92% of what a registered nurse can do." They will not have those opportunities in their new positions.