Implement Nurse Staffing Ratios to Improve Patient Care, Say Nurses and Health-Care Professionals at Rallies Across Ontario

TORONTO, March 20, 2025 /CNW/ - Thousands of registered nurses (RNs) and health-care professionals across Ontario are holding all-out rallies today, demanding that RN-to-patient staffing ratios be implemented in the province's hospitals.

"RN staffing ratios or having standards for a maximum number of patients per nurse to care for, have been shown to improve the quality of care, reduce the rates of patient complications and death, increase nurse retention and recruitment rates and save health-care funding dollars," says Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN. "They are the miracle treatment for much of what ails our health-care system in Ontario. There is no downside to making them the standard in our hospitals."

The ratios are the priority bargaining demand for ONA's 60,000 hospital members as negotiations for a new collective agreement goes to arbitration next month.

"Prior to the start of negotiations for a new contract, we asked our hospital-sector members what their priorities were," says Ariss. "It was no contest: nurse staffing ratios won. At a time when Ontario continues to suffer from the worst nursing shortage in the entire country, our nurses are focused on improving care for patients and regaining their ability to provide the quality of care they know patients need and deserve."

Negotiations between ONA and the Ontario Hospital Association, which represents most hospitals, broke down after more than a week of talks. The matter is set to go before Arbitrator Sheri Price in April.

"Our all-out rallies are the latest in a series of escalating collective actions to apply pressure on hospital CEOs to agree to RN-to-patient ratios," says Ariss. "We need hospital CEOs and our provincial government to be real leaders, to take real, effective action to enable nurses to provide excellent patient care, improve working conditions for nurses and health-care professionals, and save taxpayer dollars in the process. There is simply no downside."

ONA is the union representing more than 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association

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