Policy & political action

Through our advocacy work, ongoing consultations with the Ontario government, we are vigilant in our mission to enhance the nursing profession. Members are often among the first to learn of proposed changes to public policy and members often provide input in policy making decisions. RNAO regularly monitors and responds to issues relating to the nursing workforce, scope of practice, nursing culture and safety, education and regulation with evidence-based recommendations. RNAO continues to sound the alarm on the need to put more resources into primary care, home and community care to decrease the number of patients in hospital.

Take action

Action Alert

Withdraw your plan to close supervised consumption sites, premier!

Harm reduction is health care and nurses are demanding that the premier withdraw his plan to withdraw health care from people in need. Join us! Call on the premier to withdraw his plan to close SCSs and gut harm reduction services in Ontario.

Action Alert

Let’s make pharmacare happen!

Call on Prime Minister Trudeau, the Senate and Premier Ford that it’s time for universal, single-payer pharmacare!

TAKE ACTION

Action Alert

Fund nurse practitioners in primary care, premier!

Urge Premier Ford and Minister Jones to fund NPs to provide primary care for Ontarians, without user fees.

Take Action

Current issues

A senior man with surgical mask with hands touching window

Long-term care and rehab

Long-term care

An aging long-term care resident population with increasing medical complexity calls for increased care from staff with the right skill mix, yet Ontario continues to underfund and understaff homes. Residents and staff deserve better.

Nursing

Nursing policy

Chronic underfunding and understaffing across all health sectors in Ontario, and the relentless replacement of RNs and NPs with less qualified health-care workers, is challenging the effectiveness of RNs and NPs and the system as a whole.

SDOH

Opioid overdose crisis

For over a decade, Canadians have been dying at an increasing rate from opioid overdoses. Between January 2016 and December 2021, nearly 30,000 Canadians died from an opioid overdose. Ontario is not immune to this tragedy.

ECCO 3.0 Enhancing Community Care for Ontarians

Care delivery

Health system transformation

More resources are needed for primary care, home and community care to decrease the number of patients in hospital. RNAO continues to call for an accessible, equitable, person-centred and publicly-funded health system.

Nursing

Nurse practitioners

A significant increase to the nurse practitioner workforce in Ontario is long overdue. RNAO’s "Vision for Tomorrow" report puts forward eight recommendations for expanding and supporting the supply of and use of NPs in Ontario.

Fiscal capacity

Fiscal capacity issues

The creation of conditions for all Ontarians' health and wellness depends in large part on how and how much the federal and provincial governments spend on health care and the social and environmental determinants of health.

Our vision

Our vision is of an Ontario that creates the conditions for health and wellness for everyone by addressing the many determinants of health.

That means a system that is

Accessible

with interprofessional care teams anchored in the communities where people live, work and play.

Person-centred

where a person and their support system are viewed as a whole and empowered to be genuine partners for their own health.

Equitable

where deliberate efforts are made to decrease gaps in health outcomes, services and experiences.

Integrated

where care is coordinated so that transitions from sector to sector, service to service, are seamless.

Publicly funded and not-for-profit

so that it is efficient and sustainable and everyone, no matter their means, receives the care they require.

Upcoming events

Queen's Park on the Road (QPOR)

It allows RNAO members to meet their MPPs within their local constituency to discuss key nursing, health, and health-care issues that matter to them and that affect their day-to-day practice.

Take Your MPP To Work

Each year, commencing at the beginning of Nursing Week, we encourage RNs, NPs and nursing students to take part in our annual Take Your MPP To Work™ political action event.

RNAO’s 11th Annual NP Knowledge Exchange Symposium

RNAO invites all of its nurse practitioner (NP) members and NP students to celebrate National NP Week (Nov. 10-16, 2024) at its virtual 11th-annual NP Knowledge Exchange Symposium on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2024. This year’s theme is NPs leading positive change and innovation.

Find policy files

The RNAO policy library provides search for all our policy resources.

POLICY LIBRARY