Member Update: COVID-19-April 1

Dear ,

Registration for our Spring Leadership Series is now open! The following courses start on April 12th, 2021:

Leadership 1: Developing Your Leadership
Leadership 2: Influencing Change in Healthcare
Leadership 3: Championing Patient Centered Care
Leadership 4: Optimizing RPNs to Full Scope

Over 8 weeks, each course helps equip nurses with new skills to support them on their leadership journey. Courses are offered in a flexible online format to meet the needs to nurses' busy schedules.

For more information, pricing details and to register, please visit https://www.werpn.com/learn/e-learning/

Upcoming change to our member updates:
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been committed to providing RPNs with access to key information, news and guidance to support you in your practice through our COVID-19 updates. As the pandemic evolves, we've seen the volume of urgent updates and new guidance decreased slightly. At the same time, we've heard from so many RPNs that they value these updates so we want to ensure we continue to provide you with the information you need.

Beginning next week, we will be shifting our COVID updates to once a week. Going forward, you can expect to get all the news and government updates you rely on in your inbox every Thursday.

If you have any feedback on the changes, the newsletter more generally or what content you'd like to see more of, please send us a note.

Seeking RPNs for Research
Our colleagues at Ryerson are conducting a study to describe interprofessional first line healthcare leaders’ roles and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. We are interested in understanding the broader impact of COVID-19 on first line leader roles, competencies, and experiences across various health sectors and organizations.

You are eligible to participate in this study if you are a healthcare professional working in a formal leadership role that includes leadership and/or management responsibilities. Roles may include:

• First line manager e.g., Nurse Manager, unit manager

• Director of Care in Long-Term Care (Director of Care)

• Professional Practice Leaders (PPLs) including Collaborative Practice Leader, Clinical Practice Leaders

• Advanced Practice Nurses (CNS, NP) including Advance Practice Nurse Educators

• Clinical Educators

• Practice-focused Coordinators e.g., Respiratory Therapy Coordinator, Therapeutic Recreational Coordinators

Learn more here

Key Provincial Updates and Resources for Health Professionals

Today, the Ontario government announced that they are implementing the "emergency break", launching the whole province into shutdown for four weeks, effective Saturday April 3rd at 12:01AM. Measures include, but are not limited to:

Prohibiting indoor organized public events and social gatherings and limiting the capacity for outdoor organized public events or social gatherings to a 5-person maximum

Restricting in-person shopping in all retail settings, including a 50 per cent capacity limit for supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers' markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies, and 25 per cent for all other retail including big box stores, along with other public health and workplace safety measures;

Prohibiting personal care services;
Prohibiting indoor and outdoor dining. Restaurants can operate by take-out, drive-through, and delivery only;

Prohibiting the use of facilities for indoor or outdoor sports and recreational fitness (e.g., gyms) with very limited exceptions;

Requiring day camps to close; and,

Limiting capacity at weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies to 15 per cent occupancy per room indoors

This morning, the Science Table released updated modelling. Highlights include:

The third wave is here and being driven by variants of concern.
Younger Ontarians are ending up in hospital. Risk of ICU admission is 2 x higher and risk of death is 1.5 x higher for the B.1.1.7 variant.
COVID-19 threatens health system ability to deal with regular ICU admissions and the ability to care for all patients.
Vaccination is not reaching the highest risk communities, delaying its impact as an effective strategy.
School disruptions have a significant and highly inequitable impact on students, parents and society. Further disruptions should be minimized.

Ontario has also announced it is expanding the number of pharmacy and primary care vaccination locations and offering AstraZeneca vaccine to individuals aged 55+

Yesterday, the Ontario government joined the Federal government in announcing $925 million in funding to enable Sanofi to bulk manufacture Fluzone® High-Dose Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine, a flu vaccine approved for people 65 years and older. The facility will include industrial scale formulation, filling and packaging, a key requirement for pandemic preparedness.

Also, the Ontario government has appointed Craig Thompson as Ontario's new Patient Ombudsman to help improve the quality of care and supports patients and their families receive in hospitals, long-term care homes, and select home and community care settings.

For more information, we encourage you to visit the Ministry of Health and Public Health Ontario website.

Daily Reports

As of 10:30AM today, Ontario reported 352,460 confirmed cases (increase of 2,557), 322,382 resolved cases, 7,389 deaths.

Data on hospitalizations is delayed. As of yesterday, the Ministry was also reporting that 1,111 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19, 396 are in ICU and 252 are vented. To view these additional details: click here

Click Here to read the latest Ministry of Health Daily Report

World Health Organization Situation Reports are also available here

In the News
For an interactive map tracking all cases across Canada and internationally, click here

Below are some key stories from today that may be of interest to our members

Urgent Jobs During COVID-19

RPNs seeking opportunities to support COVID efforts can find postings on the following sites:

WeRPN's Job Board
The Provincial Government recruitment portal and match them with opportunities.
The Ontario Long Term Care Association job matching program
Ontario's health matching portal.

We will continue to monitor this situation and keep you updated as more information becomes available. Thank you for the important work that you're doing and the sacrifices you're making to keep Ontarians safe. We appreciate everything that you're doing each and every day.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Tiff Blair at tblair@werpn.com

Sincerely,

WeRPN Team