FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 18, 2021
SIMCOE — The Ontario government is investing $35 million to increase enrolment in nursing education programs in publicly-assisted colleges and universities across the province. The new spaces will be available for fall 2021 and winter 2022 cohorts and will introduce approximately 1,130 new practical nurses and 870 registered nurses into the health care system.
“This is another step towards our commitment for long-term care,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “These graduates can assist with staffing the new long-term care beds previously announced in Haldimand-Norfolk.”
COVID-19 has exacerbated the gap between the current supply of nurses compared to Ontario’s current and future needs across the health care system. This announcement is a significant step towards keeping pace with the rising demand for frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, especially in sectors where health care workers care for Ontario’s most vulnerable patients such as long-term care, home and community care and acute care.
“Our government committed to ensuring residents in long-term care receive, on average, four hours of direct care per day. To make this a reality, tens of thousands of new staff need to be hired to provide this care — including registered nurses and practical nurses,” said Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care. “Today’s investment supports our plan to shore up staffing in long-term care and address the need for nurses across the health care system.”
In addition to expanding enrolment to support the increase in nursing supply for all sectors of our health system, including home and community care and acute care, this investment will also support the expansion of clinical education placements for nursing students and personal support worker students in the long-term care sector.
Clinical education placements will be supported in the following ways:
- Increasing training for clinical experts who oversee students in long-term care placements; and
- Providing additional funding to ensure dedicated supervision time from clinical experts to support student learning in long-term care.
“Ontarians rely on the exceptional quality of care that health care professionals provide in hospitals and long-term care homes,” said Ross Romano, Minister of Colleges and Universities. “Colleges and universities are crucial partners in our goal to provide high-quality care for long-term care residents and all Ontarians. Today’s announcement is progress to ensuring that Ontario’s healthcare system has the highly-qualified staff needed to provide world-class care for Ontarians and our loved ones.”
This investment will help long-term care homes ensure quality clinical placements in long-term care at a time when homes are facing severe staffing challenges. It will also provide registered nurses already in the long-term-care sector an opportunity to grow their careers by working as clinical experts and supervising new students.
“Nurses are a cornerstone of our health care system and are integral to Ontario’s fight against COVID-19,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This investment will support and strengthen our nursing workforce and ensure patients can continue to receive high-quality care across our health system, including long-term care, home and community care and acute care.”
This investment also supports the government’s Long-Term Care Staffing Plan, which was launched last year and sets out actions that will educate, train and help recruit tens of thousands of new health care staff through partnerships with labour partners, long-term care homes, and education and training providers, so that homes can provide an average of four hours of direct care per day to residents.
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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org