National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, observed on Sept. 30, is a time for people across Canada to reflect on the impacts of the residential school system on Indigenous Peoples and to work towards reconciliation as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) report. This date was originally observed in Indigenous communities as Orange Shirt Day. On Sept. 30, we encourage everyone to wear orange to honour the loss of lives and survivors of residential schools.

Working along your school’s rich education programs, RNAO augments a student’s nursing education on the professional association side. Saturday, Sept. 30 is the LAST DAY for undergraduate nursing students to sign up for a FREE RNAO membership.

Ontario nursing students studying in a bachelor's degree program (including RPN to RN bridging programs and accelerated types of bachelor's degree programs) can join RNAO for absolutely no charge during the month of September 2023. Membership is valid until Oct. 31, 2024.

Do you have a friend or colleague who you think should join RNAO? All they have to do is sign up for next year, and October 2023 is on us. Membership is valid until Oct. 31, 2024 and includes professional liability protection – a mandatory requirement by the College of Nurses of Ontario – and other member-only benefits.

Sign up online or by calling 1-800-268-7199. Don’t forget to give new members your membership referral link to use.

RNAO is proud to represent more than 50,400 Ontario RNs, NPs and nursing students (NS). When you become a member, you receive an RN, NP or NS pin to show your nursing pride. This highlights your role as a health professional, and helps lead the charge for the nursing profession and health care.

#RNAOProud is a social media campaign that encourages all members to proudly show how they wear their nursing pins. To participate, tag @RNAO in your photos on X (formerly Twitter) or @registerednurses on Instagram showing how you wear your nursing pin and include the hashtag #RNAOProud. Participants have a chance to be featured in RNAO’s social media feed.

If you don’t have a pin, please reach out to membership@RNAO.ca.

RNAO is extremely disturbed by the recent targeting of policies and programs designed to support 2SLGBTQI+ children and youth in Ontario schools. We speak out loudly and clearly against hate in all its expressions – especially when directed at vulnerable children and youth who may be struggling with their gender identity and sexual orientation. We echo the message of the many demonstrations across our province on Sept. 20 – there is “no space for hate in Ontario.”

Join RNAO's Oct. 16 webinar: Ensuring 2SLGBTQI+ kids thrive. Register online for free.

Now that fall has set in, it’s even more important to protect yourself against COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory illnesses. The simplest way is by getting vaccinated and practising healthy hygiene.

RNAO encourages all nurses and their family and friends to get the flu shot, COVID-19 booster and RSV vaccine once they are available. They are the best defense against these viruses. Healthy hygiene measures include frequent and thorough handwashing, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, cover your coughs and sneezes, and stay home if you feel sick. 

We also urge you to book an appointment for your COVID-19 booster dose using the provincial web portal and find a flu shot clinic near you by visiting Ontario.ca. Please note, it is safe to receive COVID-19 and flu shots at the same time.

This month, RNAO was featured in media stories related to the Ontario Ombudsman’s report about long-term care (LTC) home inspections, retro pay for nurses at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the Global March to End Fossil Fuels, the ongoing need to retain nurses in this province and protests against for-profit care.

You asked and we listened. Now, there’s an easier way to earn and track RNAO recruitment rewards! Visit your MyRNAO member dashboard for a unique referral link and QR code to share with prospective members. Thanks to Amanda Mayock for your suggestion.

With recruitment rewards, you can earn $20 RNAO dollars* for each new** RN or NP member you recruit, and $5 if you recruit an undergraduate nursing student or internationally educated nurse associate. Recruit five new RN or NP members, and your next year’s membership is free.

There are now two new ways to share your referral code with prospective members:

• copy, paste and send the referral link in a text message or email to your nursing colleagues
• download the QR code to your cell phone, computer and/or tablet for others to scan with their mobile device in person

Both the referral link and the QR code will bring new members directly to join.RNAO.ca with your RNAO membership number automatically populated, making the recruitment process seamless.

What are you waiting for? Start sharing your referral link and earning rewards.

*RNAO dollars can be used towards your RNAO membership renewal or registration for any upcoming RNAO conference or event.

**New member is someone who has not been an RNAO member in the last two membership years.

Do you have questions or thoughts to share about nursing, health, or health care? Do you have an experience to tell as an RN, NP or nursing student?

Share them during RNAO’s ninth annual Fall Tour. RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway, CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun and President-Elect Lhamo Dolkar will connect with members across the province about your views, questions and concerns related to your practice or the health system.

Participating chapters, regions without chapters and interest groups will be hosting either a virtual or in-person visit for members and non-members to attend. Join the conversation by using the hashtag #FallTour in your social media posts.

Find one or more visits you would like to attend:

• Kawartha-Victoria Chapter – Oct. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET – register online
• Nursing Students of Ontario – Oct. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET
• Community Health Nurses’ Initiatives’ Group – Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. ET
• Lakehead Chapter – Oct. 18 from 3 to 5 p.m. ET – register online
• International Nursing Interest Group – Oct. 18 at 6 to 8 p.m. ET – register online
• Mississauga Chapter, Staff Nurse Interest Group and Brampton Chapter – Oct. 19 at 6 to 8 p.m. ET – register online
• Region 7 (Toronto East) – Oct. 19 at 6 to 8 p.m. ET – register online
• Kingston Chapter – Oct. 23 at 6 to 8 p.m. ET
• Waterloo Chapter – Oct. 23 at 6 to 8 p.m. ET
• Middlesex Elgin Chapter – Oct. 24 from 3 to 5 p.m. ET
• Algoma Chapter – Oct. 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET
• Lanark-Leeds-Grenville Chapter – Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET

Stay tuned for details on registration for all events.

RNAO's network of student ambassadors are representatives on nursing school campuses and the point people between their school’s nursing students and home office staff. RNAO student ambassadors highlight membership benefits, opportunities, and current initiatives and campaigns of their professional association. They encourage RNAO student membership as a valuable career choice and encourage participation at the provincial and local levels.

RNAO will contact registrants once selected, Student ambassadors will be required to complete a virtual training session. The virtual training session will be held on Oct. 5, 2023 from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET.

On Sept. 20 - 22, RNAO and a global community of like-minded colleagues and teams gathered for the 18th annual BPSO Knowledge Exchange Symposium, themed Celebrating our Global Commitment to Evidence-Based Cultures. Timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) program, it was an event to remember.

The symposium was attended by more than 235 representatives from BPSOs within Ontario and internationally, with many others joining virtually through the livestream. During the symposium, nurses and other health professionals gave workshops, presentations and shared the strategies they use to implement, evaluate and sustain best practice guidelines (BPG) in their organization or nursing school. The four main themes discussed were values, evidence, leading change and results. Presenters shared their "why", spoke about shifts in culture, described interprofessional team members who have a thirst for knowledge and are intrinsically motivated to improve care, and highlighted the critical leadership role of student nurse champions. 

On display was RNAO's powerful data system NQuIRE®, which has enabled BPSOs to profile the positive outcomes of evidence-based practice and showcase how BPGs has have transformed patient care, staff satisfaction and team morale. 

There were many opportunities for informal discussions and networking throughout the three days. Participants left the symposium with renewed energy and creative ideas to successfully lead change within their organizations.

For more about the event that celebrated RNAO’s more than 1,500 BPSOs, please read the X (formerly Twitter) thread and watch the livestreamed videos on YouTube.

On Sept. 7 - 8, RNAO hosted an orientation launch for Cohort 4 of its RNAO Clinical Pathways program in partnership with PointClickCare. Approximately 100 representatives from the more than 40 long-term care (LTC) homes that are beginning their implementation journeys attended the in-person event.

RNAO Clinical Pathways are based on RNAO’s world-renowned best practice guidelines and contextualized for the LTC sector. They are embedded in PointClickCare’s Nursing Advantage Canada platform for ease of access by nurses and the interdisciplinary team. Grounded in research and evidence, RNAO Clinical Pathways enhance staff capacity for evidence-based practice, optimize resident-centred care and health outcomes, and support legislative and regulatory compliance. 

Registration is open to join the next cohort.

Ontario health service organizations, academic institutions and long-term care homes have the opportunity to join an international community dedicated to making a positive impact on patient/resident care and academic education through evidence-based practice.

• Health service organizations and academic institutions: APPLY ONLINE
• LTC homes: APPLY ONLINE

On Sept. 26 at Toronto's Queen’s Park, RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun was a keynote speaker at Ontario Health Coalition’s protest against the provincial government’s privatization of public hospitals’ core services. Multiple rallies were also held across Ontario on Sept. 25. 

The premier’s plans to expand for-profit care in Ontario “will worsen wait times and expand a two-tier system in which most Ontarians will lose,” said Grinspun. See more on RNAO’s X (formerly Twitter).

For-profit health care compromises quality, costs more, expands two-tier health system, erodes service in our public hospitals and worsens wait times. For-profit care diverts nurses, other health professionals and funding from the public system, leaving it with deteriorated services. Ontario’s hospitals are already facing a crisis.

Take action by signing and sharing RNAO’s Action Alert: Stop the move to for-profit health care, premier!

RNAO is taking action to urge the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) to end investments in fossil fuels. On Sept. 29, RNAO issued a letter to the HOOPP CEO and board members to immediately invest the pension funds of our members and Ontario’s health-care workers in investments that build a just and sustainable future, to cease immediately all new investment in fossil fuels and to establish a timeline for phasing out the $1.6 billion presently invested in fossil fuels by 2025. Everyone is encouraged to sign and share the open letter to HOOPP.

Nurses are gravely concerned that HOOPP still holds $1.6 billion in shares in oil and gas companies. HOOPP’s investment policy is at odds with RNAO members’ professional values and our commitment to serve the public. Nurses and other health-care professionals are already attending to those affected by the climate crisis, whether injuries from burns or floods, reactions to extreme heat, respiratory problems, vector-borne diseases, population displacement and dislocation, permafrost thawing, water and food insecurity, or the mental health impacts of the current environmental catastrophe.

Together, we urge HOOPP to act now and fund a just and sustainable future, not climate disruption.

As of late August 2023, 15 million hectares of land across Canada – almost twenty-seven times the size of Prince Edward Island – have gone up in smoke as a result of thousands of wildfires. The 2023 wildfire season has already been Canada’s most severe on record. 

These wildfires, which led to mandatory evacuations of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and many other communities, also threaten the millions forced to breathe the massive quantities of harmful pollutants released. At one point in June, Toronto had the worst air quality of any major city in the world due to forest fires in northeastern Ontario and Quebec. 

In September, RNAO members from across Ontario joined rallies for the Global March to End Fossil Fuels and the Fridays for Future Global Climate Strike to mobilize action from the provincial and federal governments. Thank you to everyone who marched with us to demand climate action. Rob Samulack, co-chair of Ontario Nurses for the Environment Interest Group (ONEIG), spoke on CityNews Ottawa’s The Sam Laprade Show about the rally in Ottawa and says “we need to end fossil fuels.” Listen at the 10:50 mark. RNAO President Dr. Claudette Holloway, President-Elect Lhamo Dolkar and co-chair of ONEIG Josalyn Radcliffe participated in the rally held in Toronto, and RNAO member Morgan Lincoln joined Whitby’s rally. 

We're calling on governments to put forward a science-based plan to address the climate emergency. Act now: Sign and share RNAO’s Action Alert.

In September, RNAO submitted recommendations to the federal government to help inform Canada’s Safe Long-Term Care (LTC) Act. RNAO applauds the initiative to embed LTC standards in legislation, especially given the tragedy that unfolded in LTC during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its submission, RNAO outlines the following recommendations for the Safe LTC Act:

• embed mandatory and enforceable national LTC standards into the act
• urge LTC homes to use RNAO’s LTC Best Practices Program as a resource for implementing continuous quality improvement initiatives
• implement RNAO Clinical Pathways
• ensure the funding formulas for LTC homes account for complexity of residents and quality outcomes
• enshrine national minimum staffing and skill mix standards in the act, per RNAO’s Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee
• implement evidence-based retention and recruitment strategies to build nursing careers across the health system, including the LTC sector
• create a pan-Canadian health workforce agency and develop a rolling 10-year health human resource plan using evidence-based measurements and targets
• ensure federal funding is contingent on provincial and territorial government tracking, measuring and public reporting of key performance indicators per LTC residence
• provide annual pan-Canadian public reports on the key performance indicators

The Safe LTC Act provides an opportunity for the Federal government to lead in correcting Canada’s course. RNAO will continue to call on the federal government to enshrine in legislation mandatory and enforceable standards for LTC.

Join RNAO on Oct. 16 from 2 - 4 p.m. ET for a webinar on how we must all play a part in making and keeping our schools free from transphobia and homophobia.

The panel discussion that will provide an overview of the issues and answer the following questions:

• What are safer spaces and supportive policies for 2SLGBTQI+ children and youth?
• Why do these initiatives matter?
• How can nurses and others stay vigilant and join in taking a stand against hate and discrimination? 
• How can nurses support educators and school boards to protect kids, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity?

This webinar is free of charge and open to nurses, other health providers, teachers, parents and members of the public.

Implementing change in any organization can be challenging. If you want to make practice changes in your health organization, consider signing up for RNAO’s annual Clinical BPG Institute. Designed by and for nurses and other health professionals, the program will help develop the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully introduce and sustain practice change through RNAO’s best practice guidelines program.

A series of five virtual weekly webinars being held Tuesdays from Oct. 24 – Nov. 21, 2023 will offer practical advice to help engage your colleagues. All webinars take place from 1 – 3:30 p.m. ET with optional networking and focused discussions from 3:30 – 4 p.m. ET. 

Don't miss out on this powerful opportunity to bring positive change and innovation to your workplace. Sessions will be recorded if you are unable to attend all five sessions.

RNAO invites all of its NP members and students to celebrate National NP Week (Nov. 12 - 18, 2023) at its virtual 10th annual NP Knowledge Exchange Symposium happening Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023 from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET. This year’s theme corresponds with an upcoming social media campaign: #WeAreNPs.

The preliminary program is available online.

RNAO encourages all of its members and Best Practice Spotlight Organizations® (BPSO®) to be active on X (formerly Twitter) to engage with politicians, reporters and other nurses about nursing and health-related topics.

Check out what BPSOs and your nursing colleagues have shared on X this past month:

• BPSO William Osler Health System shares how they’ve implemented best practice guidelines with visitors from China’s Lanzhou University Second Hospital.
• RN Celina Carter shares RNAO’s Action Alert: Hands off the Greenbelt, premier!
• NP and RNAO President-Elect Lhamo Dolkar calls for action to address the climate crisis
• NP Alanna Coleman promotes the upcoming NP Knowledge Exchange Symposium
• BPSO Chigamik Community Health Centre attends the 18th annual BPSO Knowledge Exchange Symposium.

RNAO is proud of all of its members who speak with reporters about topics related to their practice and health care. It’s important that nurses’ voices from across all domains and settings are heard to help educate the public, elected officials and other decision-makers.

The following recent media stories feature RNAO members:

• RN Dorothea Service, InQuinte: HKPRDHU to provide new program for young parents
• RN Edward Cruz, Toronto Star: Championing inclusion in health care
• RN Kathy Moreland, TheRecord.com: ‘I’m angry that we have to do this every year’
• RN Brittany Mauro, CollingwoodToday.ca: On the front lines of the mental-health crisis
• RN Amanda Wagner, Brampton Guardian: Brampton hospital takes unique approach in treating rare disease that affects mainly Black community

If you’re interested in being added to RNAO’s media directory, please complete this short survey. Please direct any questions to a member of the communications team.

Are you looking for a nursing position or need to fill a vacant role? RNCareers.ca is here for you.

RNCareers specializes in all levels of nursing including clinical, non-clinical, staff nurse, management, executive and administrative roles for NPs, RNs, RPNs, PSWs and other health professionals across all health-care sectors.

Jobseekers: create a free account, upload your resume, activate job alerts and land your dream job by visiting RNCareers.ca.

Employers: post job opportunities, access RNAO’s exclusive resume database with thousands of health-care professionals and get top quality applicants with automated pre-screening

RNAO offers a huge range of benefits to its employees, including health and dental, short- and long-term disability, vacation and sick time coverage, top-up for mat leave, professional development, and HOOPP membership.  

Are you interested in joining RNAO’s team? If you’re eligible, apply for one of the following positions:

• long-term care best practices implementation coach
• implementation science manager, International Affairs and Best Practice Guidelines Centre
• implementation specialist (RNAO Clinical Pathways)
• NP research chair