Children's Hospital in London, Ont., to recruit 4 new heart doctors

An all-out effort will be made in 2008 to recruit at least three new children’s heart doctors to London, the head of the city’s hospitals said.

“It is very, very important to me to sustain Children’s Hospital and therefore we are going to devote a lot of time and energy to try and make this happen,” said Cliff Nordal, president of both London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care.

Both of London’s children’s heart doctors, Dr. Dion Pepelassis and Dr. Ilan Buffo, have resigned to accept positions at Winnipeg Children’s Hospital at the end of June.

"London needs a minimum of three of the specialists to provide a sustainable service and will try to hire four by the end of 2008, " Nordal said.

“We will be looking as well at international medical graduates that are in training in Canada.”

Nordal called the loss of the two children’s heart specialists “a blip” in an otherwise successful drive to recruit health care professionals to London.

Faced with the closure of hospital beds because of a lack of nurses, London Health Sciences Centre set a target last February to hire 450 new nurses.
To date, the hospital has recruited about 340, allowing it to reopen all of the closed beds.

“We expect by the end of March we will reach our target,” Nordal said.

The closed beds contributed to extended waits for patients in the city’s emergency departments and led to the cancellation of some surgeries.

"Not all the problems will be solved with the beds reopened," Nordal said.

The hospital still has difficulties providing enough beds for acute care because 40 to 70 beds are occupied by people waiting for placement in long-term care facilities or back into the community.

The Ontario government announced it will expand the number of long-term care beds in the London area by 600, but those beds won’t be available until late 2010.

St. Joseph’s Health Care has proposed to the Health Ministry that it opens 50 beds at the Parkwood Hospital site, at least on a temporary basis, to reduce the pressure.

“That has not been approved yet, but we are hopeful that that will be considered as at least an interim step,” Nordal said.

Another challenge that will persist in the face of rising cancer rates is the wait times for cancer scans and therapies.
In the past year, the number of people receiving cancer therapy treatments at LHSC grew by 15 percent.

“It is just a burgeoning amount of care required. It spills over into surgery, it spills over into imaging and as a result those are the areas we are having our greatest wait list challenges.”

“Those will be areas we will try to tackle in the coming year, trying to get down to the provincial average where possible,” Nordal said.

Source: The London Free Press

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Two children's heart doctors for Winnipeg Regional

Canada recruits hundreds of Practical Nurses from Jamaica

Hundreds of Jamaicans were recruited in October to work in health care, the construction and hospitality service sectors in British Columbia through the Ministry's Canadian Overseas Employment Programme.

The group included mainly certified practical nurses, but also a group of pipe-fitters, welders, and carpenters.

Over the years, Jamaicans have been recruited to work in Ontario, Montreal, Quebec and New Brunswick on the Overseas Farm Work Programme but this is the first time that employees are being requested for the health care, hospitality and construction sectors.

Canada will be recruiting approximately 2,000 practical nurses by the end of 2008.

As part of the recruitment programme, there is a partnership between the Okanagan College and the HEART/NTA, to ensure the certification of workers so that they will be ready to go directly into the workforce once they arrive in Canada.

Source: JIS

Political Action Award 2007 for two Mississauga nurses

Two Mississauga nurses, whose efforts helped bring about an increase in the food allotment for residents of Ontario's seniors' homes, have won an award for their efforts.
They have been friends since attending Credit Valley School of Nursing together more than three decades ago.

When they began speaking to their congregation at St. Christopher parish last April, Curitti and Shaw had no idea of the campaign they'd soon be embarking upon: collecting thousands of signatures on petitions, visiting Queen’s Park, enlisting the assistance of the RNAO and the Dietitians of Canada and, ultimately, changing the policy of the provincial government.

While those advocacy groups had been trying to get the $5.46 daily, per resident, allowance hiked for several years, the homegrown campaign started by the nurses in the run-up to the provincial election struck a chord with the public, and politicians.

In August, Health Minister George Smitherman announced he was allocating $23.1 million to increase the daily "raw food allowance" to $7 per day.
That covers the costs of three meals (with two choices at each one), three snacks and all beverages.
When Shaw and Curitti, who are co-chairs of the family council at Cawthra Gardens long-term care facility, spoke to managers of seniors' homes, they found many were struggling to provide the required nutrition within the budget limitations.

The fact that the allowance is raised will be making a big difference to the quality of life of senior residents.”
Linda Dietrich, regional director for the Dietitians of Canada, told The News the nurses' efforts are very much appreciated.
“I think their work has been significant to help persuade the government to take the action they did.”

Angela Shaw and Julie Curitti will receive the Political Action Award for 2007 from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO), at Queen's Park on January 24th.

Source: The Mississauga News

Government grants $5.36 million to Alberta's Health and Wellness

Lee Richardson, Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health, and the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today announced a federal contribution of $536,000 to Alberta Health and Wellness to pilot test an innovative off-shore assessment program for internationally educated nurses immigrating to Canada.

"Projects such as this will help to alleviate Canada's nursing shortage, which in turn will lead to improved care and a reduction in wait times. This is a ground-breaking initiative, in which the Government of Canada is proud to take part," said Minister Clement.

"Canada has a skills shortage and skilled immigrants want to contribute to our country by working in the fields for which they've been trained. We want to help them do that and one of the best ways is to help them get their credentials assessed before they enter the country so that when they arrive, they can find work faster in their fields," said Minister Finley.

Traditionally, internationally educated nurses who wanted to work in Alberta needed to travel to Mount Royal College in Calgary to take the assessment exams. Once this off-shore pilot project is fully implemented, 36 nursing candidates will be assessed overseas, with their language, knowledge and competencies measured against Registered Nurse (RN) competency standards. The nurses will be informed of any areas that require supplemental learning.

"I am thrilled that this project is taking place here in Alberta," said Mr. Richardson. "Internationally trained nurses can now be assessed before they arrive to Alberta, so that when they arrive they'll be able to start working as nurses sooner."

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Edmonton health region renovates residences to lure nurses

Capital Health is spending $1.2 million to renovate a residence, apartment building and house to attract health workers from other countries to Edmonton.

A former nurses' residence at the Misericordia Community Hospital and an apartment building connected to the Royal Alexandra Hospital will provide temporary homes for 77 nursing recruits from other provinces and overseas.

Capital Health is also renovating a five-bedroom house near the University of Alberta Hospital.

"One of the biggest challenges these new nurses are going to face is housing and by providing the new temporary accommodations we're hoping to ease their transition to both Edmonton and Canada," said John McPhail, vice-president of the health region's human resources in a news release last Friday.

The renovations, which include new flooring, paint and sprinkler systems to meet current fire codes, are expected to finish in March 2008.