The issue

Registered nurses (RN) and nurse practitioners (NP) are an essential part of Ontario’s health-care system. One that should be: accessible, equitable, person-centred and integrated. And yet, the province has the worst RN-to-population ratio in Canada. Chronic underfunding and understaffing across all health sectors 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. 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.

What the evidence says
 
nurse per capita

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Take action

provincial platform hero image
Presentation
RNAO's provincial election platform 2022
Nurses know what factors influence and shape people’s health. That’s why RNAO has developed a set of recommendations that cover the environment, the social determinants of health, nursing, care delivery and fiscal capacity.
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#RepealBill124
Action Alert
Repeal Bill 124, premier!
Call on the premier to immediately repeal Bill 124.
Take Action
NP nurses united
Action Alert
An urgent call for more nurse practitioners (NP)
Join our call for more nurse practitioner (NP)-led clinics and attending NPs in long-term care.
Take Action

Social media

Get involved. Use the following hashtags on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to participate in the ongoing dialogue: #NP, #QPD

Nursing policy documents

crisis
Nursing Through Crisis: A Comparative Perspective

RNAO carried out a detailed survey from May to July 2021, during the height of Ontario’s third wave. Responses from 5,200 Canadian nurses, most of them from Ontario, were analyzed and compared with the association’s earlier Work and Wellbeing Survey Results report, as well as with similarly focused national and international surveys that examined the struggles of nurses working throughout the pandemic.

LEARN MORE

IEN action hero image orange
RNAO’s letter to the College of Nurses of Ontario regarding IENs  

In the midst of Ontario’s worse nursing crisis, thousands of internationally-educated nurses (IEN) living in Ontario remain unable to practise as their applications with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) languish for years.

RNAO has called on the CNO to immediately address the backlog of more than 20,000 IEN applications eager to join Ontario’s workforce at a time of dire need.  

RNAO has long urged the CNO to adopt a more streamlined approach to process applications. The association’s call for immediate action took on added urgency when it learn of a new program offering work to IENs in the long-term care sector as unregulated health providers. In a letter addressed to the CNO’s CEO Anne Coghlan, Dr. Doris Grinspun stated the Long-Term Care Staffing Pool Program is “exploiting this pool of skilled applicants as a reserve of lesser-skilled labour in a time of crisis is unhelpful and shortsighted … a disservice to Ontarians in desperate need of nurses for both COVID and non-COVID-related health care.”

The letter urges the CNO to expedite IEN applicants so they can take their rightful place as members of Ontario’s nursing profession.  RNAO says the college owes IEN applicants and Ontarians at large, an explanation for its painfully slow assessment system, especially at a time there is critical RN understaffing across the province.  

READ LETTER

well being survey
Work and wellbeing survey

This report summarizes the response to  RNAO’s Work and Wellbeing Survey. It tells the story of nurses and a nursing workforce under considerable stress and strain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reveals that the effective functioning of Ontario’s health system is at risk post-pandemic. The magnitude of potential departures by retirement or by changes in career paths calls for an immediate response from health system employers and government

READ OUR REPORT

  • Nursing Through Crisis: A Comparative Perspective
    crisis
    Nursing Through Crisis: A Comparative Perspective

    RNAO carried out a detailed survey from May to July 2021, during the height of Ontario’s third wave. Responses from 5,200 Canadian nurses, most of them from Ontario, were analyzed and compared with the association’s earlier Work and Wellbeing Survey Results report, as well as with similarly focused national and international surveys that examined the struggles of nurses working throughout the pandemic.

    LEARN MORE

  • RNAO’s letter to the College of Nurses of Ontario regarding IENs
    IEN action hero image orange
    RNAO’s letter to the College of Nurses of Ontario regarding IENs  

    In the midst of Ontario’s worse nursing crisis, thousands of internationally-educated nurses (IEN) living in Ontario remain unable to practise as their applications with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) languish for years.

    RNAO has called on the CNO to immediately address the backlog of more than 20,000 IEN applications eager to join Ontario’s workforce at a time of dire need.  

    RNAO has long urged the CNO to adopt a more streamlined approach to process applications. The association’s call for immediate action took on added urgency when it learn of a new program offering work to IENs in the long-term care sector as unregulated health providers. In a letter addressed to the CNO’s CEO Anne Coghlan, Dr. Doris Grinspun stated the Long-Term Care Staffing Pool Program is “exploiting this pool of skilled applicants as a reserve of lesser-skilled labour in a time of crisis is unhelpful and shortsighted … a disservice to Ontarians in desperate need of nurses for both COVID and non-COVID-related health care.”

    The letter urges the CNO to expedite IEN applicants so they can take their rightful place as members of Ontario’s nursing profession.  RNAO says the college owes IEN applicants and Ontarians at large, an explanation for its painfully slow assessment system, especially at a time there is critical RN understaffing across the province.  

    READ LETTER

  • Work and wellbeing survey
    well being survey
    Work and wellbeing survey

    This report summarizes the response to  RNAO’s Work and Wellbeing Survey. It tells the story of nurses and a nursing workforce under considerable stress and strain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reveals that the effective functioning of Ontario’s health system is at risk post-pandemic. The magnitude of potential departures by retirement or by changes in career paths calls for an immediate response from health system employers and government

    READ OUR REPORT

Other documents related to nursing policy:

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