OCHU RPN Poll of 2,600 Paints a Grim Picture
- 32% of RPNs sick from Covid-19 caught at work were not paid for the absence.
- Workloads are up 81% in the last year
- Violence at work is up 70% during Covid-19
- 51% are coping poorly
- 29% consider leaving nursing
- 83% say pay increases instead of the real wage cuts they face from the Ford government would help them stay
Watch the CP24 coverage:
Centres for Disease Control and World Health Organization change guidance and agree: Covid is Airborne
The CDC updated guidance May 7 on Covid-19 transmission to recognize aerosol transmission is a primary route of transmission of the virus.
The World Health Organization changed its guidance on April 30.
Ontario still refuses to recognize that Covid-19 is airborne.
PSW Regulation Threat
The Ontario government has introduced legislation that will deny personal support workers access to the legal rights that nurses and others enjoy when facing discipline or the loss of their license.The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions-CUPE and CUPE Ontario will present on May 15 to the Committee of the Ontario Legislature that is taking submission on this bill.
Nurses have the right to appear before an independent legal body, to call witnesses and subpoena evidence and decisions on their cases may be appealed to the courts. None of these rights would apply to PSWs under the scheme proposed by the Conservative government.
Nurses’ Week and PSW Day materials are available now!
Pins for Registered Practical Nurses and Lanyard Cards for Personal Support Workers have been sent to all local unions for distribution during Nurses’ Week and for PSW Day.
Please contact your local union for your pin and/or lanyard card.
Nursing Week and PSW Day posters have also been provided for all union bulletin boards, and are available for download here.
