(Photo provided by Brian Findlay)
Nurses throughout Grey Bruce are receiving support from RBC with free mental health support workshops and funding for education.
In a notice from the RBC Foundation, virtual mental health workshops run by representatives from the Canadian Mental Health Association will be offered to nurses.
According to RBC, Walkerton and District Hospital Foundation, Hanover and District Hospital Foundation, and Owen Sound Regional Hospital Foundation each received $10,000 and will be used in the training and education activities for its nurses.
Owen Sound Hospital Foundation Executive Director Amy McKinnon says they have had a partnership with the RBC Foundation for many years and are grateful in recognizing the importance of continuing education for nurses in rural areas.
“The $10,000 RBC has been donating annually has been going into a pool of funds where, in this case specifically for nursing, they can apply for some tuition reimbursement,” notes McKinnon. “Last year there were 26 nurses who received some tuition reimbursement and it covered a variety of programs or courses that they may have been taking, the Bachelors of Nursing Bridging Program, Critical Care Nursing Certification, Mental Health Certification, and Masters of Nursing are a few examples.”
McKinnon says she has been encouraging nurses across Grey Bruce to join the virtual mental health workshops, which will focus on topics like burnout, self-care and de-escalation in a crisis.
According to the RBC Foundation, a Jan. 2021 Statistics Canada survey found, during the pandemic, more than 70 per cent of Ontario nurses have said they’ve experienced a breaking point. Another statistic showed between Nov. 24th and Dec. 13th, among the 18,000 health-care workers participating in a survey, nurses were revealed to be in a worse mental health state than other health-care workers.
This funding and support comes as National Nursing Week starts on May 10th.