Nurses Know: Better Care Starts Here

TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2017 /CNW/ - Nurses know that better care for our hospital, long-term care and home care patients starts with more front-line Registered Nurses (RNs) and health-care professionals; this Thanksgiving weekend, the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) launched a new campaign alerting the public of the risks to their health.

"Better Care Starts Here illustrates the challenges of providing quality patient care in the face of RN cuts and overcrowding," says ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. "Many of our hospitals are at overcapacity. In our long-term care facilities, we are struggling to provide the level of care our vulnerable seniors need and deserve. And in the community, patients who are sicker and more complex need the highly skilled care of RNs."

ONA's multi-media campaign includes television ads, transit shelter ads, radio, social media and print ads, encouraging Ontarians to take action to fix what is ailing the system.

Haslam-Stroud says that the years of austerity imposed on the health-care system are showing, with many of our hospitals at overcapacity, and long wait lists for long-term care and for community care.

"As nurses, we do all we can to ensure that our patients, residents and clients receive the best care possible; we also know that understaffing risks patients falling through the cracks," says Haslam-Stroud. "Ontario's nurses ask that the public join us in fighting for our health-care system by visiting www.nursesknow.ona.org and taking action. Our health-care system is worth it."

ONA is the union representing 65,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as more than 16,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association