Nursing Week May 12-16 200

May 12-16 is celebrated as Nursing Week in Ontario. It’s a chance to highlight members of a profession that makes an enormous difference to patients across Ontario, and elsewhere, as part of a team of dedicated health professionals.

OPSEU represents many thousands of the144,000 practicing nurses in Ontario. Our members include not only Registered Nurse (RN) professionals but also Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) – the profession of the president of this union.

Nurses work in a variety of settings including mental health and acute care hospitals, correctional facilities, long-term care facilities, public health units, community clinics, workplaces, and private homes. In most of these settings, they provide care 365 days a year on a round-the-clock basis as part of a team of health care professionals. They make a difference in the lives of many people.

It’s a difficult, demanding profession. At work, many nurses face staff shortages, stress, contagious disease, and even violent attacks or harassment from patients and co-workers. Our union continues to work hard to improve working conditions, including worker health and safety, for our nursing members.

This week, let’s take a few moments to consider the commitment and dedication of OPSEU’s RN and RPN members, and the contributions of nursing professionals to patient care in Ontario.