There is no recovery from COVID-19 without A Just Recovery for All

Submitted by kdieleman on Fri, 2020-08-28 12:09

In a letter sent on August 27, to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, cabinet ministers and federal party leaders, RNAO called for urgent action to tackle long-standing, profound inequities exacerbated by COVID-19. These inequities are now embodied in “A Just Recovery for All” - the global social movement RNAO has embraced.

COVID-19 made ready targets the most vulnerable Canadians, in particular, residents in Canada’s long term care facilities and persons experiencing homeless. It also highlighted the urgent need for a federal Chief Nursing Officer. In brief:

Protecting residents in long-term care homes must be immediately addressed through national standards of care. We urge our PM and MPs from all parties to put their support behind RNAO’s Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee as a national standard in response to Canada’s crisis in the provision of safe care for Canada’s seniors residing in nursing homes.
Persons experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to illness and disease than the housed. Public health advice has reinforced the importance of housing as a defence against COVID-19. “Stay home, self-isolate, wash hands frequently,” has been the mantra for months. Yet each year, nearly 250,000 Canadians experience homelessness – 35,000 on any given night. Homelessness is the product of decades of public policy choices by all orders of government -- an unacceptable reality in a country as wealthy as Canada! RNAO calls on our PM to adopt a community-based response to homelessness, which includes a basic income, housing, advocacy for homeless persons, a re-think of the financialization of rental housing markets, and a greater focus on an Indigenous housing and homeless strategy. Such a plan is consistent with A Just Recovery for All, makes economic sense, and will spur Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery by building housing infrastructure, creating jobs and saving taxpayers over $18 billion.
Ensuring A Just Recovery also means accounting for the expertise of Canada’s largest health-care workforce: nurses. Calling nurses heroes, as it often happens during COVID-19, is not enough. On this, The Year of The Nurse and Midwife, RNAO urges our PM to reinstate the role of a national chief nursing officer. Such a position will enable greater and more strategic deployment of nurses in our health system, and an expanded scope of practice for nurses to support a strong health system anchored in primary care.

RNAO has outlined solutions to the challenges that are facing Canadians in these unprecedented times. It is calling for immediate action to address the multiple threats confronting the most vulnerable amongst us. We are asking that you too call on our PM to ensure that in his Speech from the Throne he advances “A Just Recovery for All” so everyone in our country can experience health, safety and security.

Read the full letter to the Prime Minister

Copies will be sent to the following:

The Hon. Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
The Hon. Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health
The Hon. Ahmed Hussen Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
Adam Vaughan, MP (Parliamentary Secretary, Housing)
Erin O’Toole, Leader of the Official Opposition
Matt Jeneroux, MP
Stephanie Kusie, MP
Jagmeet Singh, MP and Leader of the Federal NDP
Jenny Kwan, MP
Don Davies, MP
Elizabeth May, MP and Parliamentary Leader of the Federal Green Party

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As parliament resumes on Sept. 23, there is an opportunity for government to address some of the profound inequities exacerbated by COVID-19. These have exposed our collective failure to build a country that provides A Just Recovery for All.

COVID-19 made ready targets of the most vulnerable Canadians, in particular, residents in Canada’s long-term care facilities and persons experiencing homelessness. It also highlighted the urgent need for a federal chief nursing officer. Nurses from all over Canada are urging our PM to tackle these as a central part in his Speech from the Throne.

First, our failure to protect our seniors, who all across this country succumbed to COVID-19, must be urgently addressed. The time for reports describing and decrying the dire national crisis in long-term care (LTC) homes is over, and action must be taken through national standards. We urge you, Prime Minister, and all MPs to put your support behind RNAO’s Basic Care Guarantee as a national standard in response to this crisis in the provision of safe care for Canada’s seniors residing in LTC homes:

1.	Ensure each LTC home provides a minimum of four (4) worked hours of direct nursing and personal care for each resident per 24 hours, according to the following staff mix formula: 
	- a minimum of 48 minutes of worked hours of RN direct care 
	- a minimum of 60 minutes of RPN/LPN direct care 
	- a minimum of 132 minutes of PSW direct care 
2.	Ensure each LTC home employs a full-time equivalent (FTE) NP per 120 residents, as attending nurse practitioner (NP). In regions where there is a shortage of NPs, employ a clinical nurse specialist (CNS).  
3.	Ensure each LTC home employs an FTE nursing staff member (preferably an RN) to support the functions of infection prevention and control, quality improvement, staff education, on boarding and orientation.
4.	Ensure each LTC home implements the following mandated human resources standards:
	- mandate that  LTC staff (RNs, RPNs/LPNs, PSWs) only work in one LTC home
	- ensure nursing and personal care salaries in LTC are commensurate with those paid to health workers in other sectors, such as hospitals
	- ensure full‐time employment with benefits is offered to staff who want full‐time work enabling continuity of care for residents, and improved staff retention
5.	Ensure each LTC home has a complement of interprofessional staff, including: physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapy, speech therapy, social work, dietary and dental care.

Second, COVID-19 highlighted how persons who experience homelessness are far more vulnerable to illness and disease than those with a place to call home. Public health advice during the pandemic reinforced the importance of housing as a defence against COVID-19. “Stay home, self-isolate, wash hands frequently,” has been the constant mantra for months. Yet each year, nearly 250,000 Canadians experience homelessness – 35,000 on any given night.

Adopting a community-based response to homelessness, which includes a basic income, housing, advocacy for homeless persons, a re-think of the financialization of rental housing markets, and a greater focus on an Indigenous housing and homeless strategy will protect those experiencing homelessness. Such a plan is consistent with A Just Recovery for All, makes economic sense, and will spur Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery by building housing infrastructure, creating jobs and saving taxpayers over $18 billion.

Third, ensuring A Just Recovery also means accounting for the expertise of Canada’s largest health-care workforce: nurses. Calling nurses heroes, as it often happens during COVID-19, is not enough. On this, The Year of The Nurse, RNAO urges, once again, our prime minister to reinstate the role of a national chief nursing officer. Such a position will enable greater and more strategic deployment of nurses in our health system, and an expanded scope of practice for nurses to support a strong health system anchored in primary care.

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Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
l’Association des infirmières et infirmiers autorisés de l’Ontario

Policy & Political Action

There is no recovery from COVID-19 without A Just Recovery for All

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontariol’Association des infirmières et infirmiers autorisés de l’Ontario

Policy & Political Action

There is no recovery from COVID-19 without A Just Recovery for All

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
l’Association des infirmières et infirmiers autorisés de l’Ontario