(CNW) The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is launching a
series of television, radio and print ads Monday designed to raise
awareness of the province's shortage of registered nurses.
"Ontario's nursing shortage is fast turning into a health-care
crisis," said Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of ONA. "The current
shortage of registered nurses is threatening quality patient care
now, and the situation will become dire as an estimated 30,000
registered nurses are eligible to leave the profession by
2008."
The television ads, featuring seven ONA member Registered Nurses,
will air during the evening news broadcasts in Sudbury, and across
the province during popular network television episodes.
The Liberal government came to power promising to create 8,000 new,
full-time nursing positions. Two-thirds of the way through its
mandate, it claims to have created 3,400 positions, but front-line
nurses have seen no relief in their workloads.
The ONA also says hundreds of registered nurses have been laid off by hospitals and other facilities struggling to meet balanced budget requirements imposed by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
The ads urge viewers to visit www.stillnotenoughnurses.ca to learn more, and to send a message to the Ontario government to hire more nurses. ONA has also developed a list of 12 proposals to address the nursing shortage.
