TORONTO – The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) continues to call for improved funding and a minimum of four hours of care per resident per day, including 48 minutes of registered nurse care, to address the ongoing understaffing in provincial long-term care facilities.
“It feels like groundhog day every day for those of us who know that our vulnerable and frail residents and nursing staff in Ontario long-term care homes are continuing to be at risk of violence,” says ONA First Vice-President Vicki McKenna, RN.
“It is vital that long-term care funding is provided in order to ensure that residents receive the quality of care they deserve,” she says. “It’s no secret that inadequate long-term care staffing has hurt our residents and our nurses. We know the solution to preventing resident-to-resident attacks, we just need the political will to make long-term care facilities safer.”
ONA has called a Code White, a campaign highlighting the increase of violence in health-care facilities across Ontario.
ONA is the union representing 62,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, as well as almost 16,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.
