MEDIA ADVISORY: Central-SW Ontario registered practical nurses talk openly about pandemic experiences; SW Ontario RPN poll being released Thursday, May 13 – 11 a.m.

Event Information

Begins: 13 May 2021 @ 11:00 AM
Location: Central/Southwest Ontario

CENTRAL/SOUTHWEST, ONTARIO –/COMMUNITYWIRE/– As part of Nursing Week (May 10-17) registered practical nurses (RPNs) who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) and SEIU Healthcare are speaking openly with media (tomorrow) Thursday, May 13 at 11 a.m. on ZOOM (http://bit.ly/OCHUSEIU-nursingwk) about their personal challenges and experiences working throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

Across Ontario hospital-based RPNs have worked diligently on the pandemic front lines for nearly 16 months. Behind their stoic façade there are tens of thousands individual stories of inner turmoil, trauma, and resilience.

Their unsettling first-person accounts of the impacts on their lives and wellbeing working in hospitals through the pandemic are supported by a CUPE poll of 2650 RPNs including several hundred from southwestern Ontario and an SEIU survey of 560 of their RPN members. Hospital-based RPNs were probed about their mental health, morale, workload and how they feel about nursing following grueling months of pandemic work.

The CUPE poll and SEIU survey findings open a window into this highly skilled but undervalued female workforce.

Ontario funding for hospital care is among the lowest in Canada. Today across the province, hospitals are critically short of nurses.  The poll and survey results are telling of an increasingly educated RPN workforce that even pre-COVID was dealing with a prolonged period of staff shortages, high acuity patients, heavy workloads, and health and safety risks.

Jointly CUPE and SEIU represent nearly 20,000 hospital-based RPNs among their collective hospital sector membership of about 70,000 who work in hospitals in every part of Ontario.

WHO:

• Front-line hospital RPNs with OCHU/CUPE and SEIU Healthcare
• SEIU Healthcare – President, Sharleen Stewart and Jackie Walker, President, Nursing Division
• OCHU/CUPE – President, Michael Hurley and Sharon Richer, Secretary-Treasurer

WHAT:

• Media conference May 13, 11 a.m., as part of Nursing Week 2021 (May 10-17)
• CUPE and SEIU RPNs talk publicly about challenges of pandemic work
• Release of survey and a poll of Hamilton area RPNs who have worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis

WHERE:

• Virtual media conference link: http://bit.ly/OCHUSEIU-nursingwk

-30-

For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, 416-559-9300, syeadon@cupe.ca

Corey Johnson, SEIU Healthcare Communications, 416-529-8909, c.johnson@seiuhealthcare.ca