Registered nurses (RN) and health care professionals are rallying across the province to advocate for better RN-to-patient staffing ratios.
“RN staffing ratios or having standards for a maximum number of patients per nurse to care for, have been shown to improve the quality of care, reduce the rates of patient complications and death, increase nurse retention and recruitment rates and save health-care funding dollars,” said Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), Provincial President Erin Ariss. “They are the miracle treatment for much of what ails our healthcare system in Ontario. There is no downside to making them the standard in our hospitals.”
Negotiations between ONA and the Ontario Hospital Association, which represents most hospitals, broke down after more than a week of talks.
The matter is set to go before an arbitrator in April.
The ratios are one of the main asks as the Nurses’ Association seeks a new collective bargaining agreement.
The organization represents over 60,000 RNs and healthcare professionals working in public hospitals.
In northwestern Ontario, rallies were held in Thunder Bay and Dryden.
“The Ontario Hospital Association has come out against nurse-to-patient ratios, they want, just-in-time staffing, our current staffing levels are not okay,” said ONA Local 73, Executive Member, Cheryl McSweeney. “We have more patients than we can safely care for, safe staffing saves lives.”
According to Local 73, 64 per cent of Ontario nurses have reported burnout over the last few years, adding that the province has the lowest number of nurses in the country.
“A nurse wants to go to work each and every day to give quality care to each and every patient every time,” added McSweeney. “We can only do that with adequate staffing levels, our levels right now are not even close to that.”
“Ontario continues to lose nurses these past few years, despite the financial incentives that the Ontario government has given to try to attract nurses. Safe staffing ratios are the key to quality patient care for every patient every time. We want to give the care that patients deserve and need, we can’t do that unless there are nurses in our profession.”
