The physiotherapy profession offers an exciting, flexible, and rewarding career. The role of the Physiotherapist Assistant (PTA) is to deliver physiotherapy services under the direction and supervision of a licensed Physiotherapist (PT). PTAs deliver many components of physiotherapy services, collect data regarding treatment interventions, and work as a team with the PT to help people gain their maximal level of function to improve their quality of life. Since today is Physiotherapy Assistant Day (May 11th), please join us in thanking our PTAs for everything they do for patients and their families!
Shared on behalf of the Office of the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Superior North
Hello,
On behalf of the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Superior North, I would like to extend an invitation to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and all the nurses in your employ to attend a virtual event for National Nursing Week.
Nurses have always been heroes in the trenches of the healthcare system, and this pandemic has highlighted their extraordinary work; Minister Hajdu would like to directly express her sincere gratitude for their tireless and tremendous efforts.
On Thursday, May 13th, from 5:30-6:30pm, join Minister Hajdu over Zoom to celebrate National Nursing Week and participate in a Q&A! Please share these meeting details with your nursing staff or any other members of the nursing community: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83636518150?pwd=MXVKZUtxVmZDdUIzOC83NWRXMkZHZz09 Meeting ID: 836 3651 8150 Passcode: 901519
You will also find a virtual invitation attached. Please share this as you see fit to promote the event within your institution.
The next Virtual All Staff Town Hall is TODAY @ 2:00 pm via Webex at tbh.net/th
We want to hear from you! If you have questions you’d like answered, please submit them online at tbh.net/thq or in writing via the envelope within your department/unit.
7:30 / Text a friend – even if you delete the text, it still leaves a digital “print” (and also remains on your friend’s device if they don’t delete it) and could still be accessible and tracked down.
8:15 / Download an app to your mobile device – online technologies take note of information like your email address and what kind of apps you like. Apps can collect all sorts of information about you, including your location and contacts in your address book.
8:42 / Late for soccer game – call coach to let team know. Cell phone calls can easily be intercepted; mobile phone technology signals your whereabouts to satellites to deliver calls.
9:11 / Play a shift in game – people could be recording videos and taking pictures of your game with their mobile phones. They could post these on social media and tag you.
10:37 / Send a text to mom at work – this can be read by mom’s employer since they have issued it to her for work purposes. Simple deletion does not erase it from the phone or the company’s network.
10:40 / Drive car to coffee shop – your geo-location device plots your route and records your vehicle location at all times.
10:43 / “Check in” in at coffee shop – you do this on social media, so all your friends know where you are. Anyone with access to your profile can see where you are (and where you aren’t) and, later, you receive personalized marketing recommendations that are based on that particular location.
10:47 / Use bank machine at coffee shop – system records details of transaction, cameras overhead or in machine record your behaviour.
10:55 Log onto Internet from your laptop at coffee shop – you use free Wi-Fi, making it possible for others to see your purchases, messages and other activity and possibly your photos and files. The coffee shop could also be monitoring your traffic.
11:00 / Post pictures from the party last night on social media – pictures and comments you post can be accessed long into the future, possibly by future college and job interviewers. If the geotagging features are enabled on your device, your photo will be tagged with your location. Anyone who can see your photo – and anyone they share the photo with – will know your location. If they know that location is your house, they will know where you live.
11:30 / Return some jeans you bought yesterday – for the return you are required to give your driver’s license for the clerk to scan and to fill out a form that asks for your phone number and home address. You stop to look at a sweater on your way out. Since you’ve downloaded the store’s app, it can use the Bluetooth capability on your phone to track which aisle you’re in.
11:53 / Buy a birthday gift for a friend – credit card records details of purchase, retailer’s loyalty card profiles purchase for points and directed discounts; banks may use spending patterns to help assemble complete customer profile.
1:00 / Buy a fast-food meal – security cameras record your arrival, your debit card purchase is recorded, loyalty card tracks selections for marketing and targeted discounts.
2:12 / Realize you forgot your phone at fast-food place – if your device isn’t password-protected, anybody could pick it up and gain access to any and all personal information on it. If they choose to text or email from it, they could even pretend to be you.
2:32 / Return to fast-food place – security cameras record your return.
4:30 / Check for missed phone calls – your phone has recorded callers’ phone numbers and displays your number when you call others, unless you enter the code to block the display.
5:13 / Accept someone you don’t know that well as a “friend” online – if you haven’t set up different privacy settings for different lists of friends, you may be giving that person access to a treasure trove of your personal information.
7:30 / Play a videogame online – gaming companies collect many types of personal information: everything from names, addresses and credit card information for billing purposes, to email addresses and IP addresses, down to feedback rankings from others, digital images and personalized profiles.
9:05 / Complete an online survey so you can get a coupon for 20% off – company records personal details and may sell the information to third parties, including data brokers who then sell it to advertising companies.
“Increasingly, living a modern life seems to mean there is nowhere to hide. In our search for security and convenience, are we hitching ourselves to an electronic leash?”
[ Eligible departments at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre will be notified later in the week with booking information. Please note that all Indigenous individuals are also eligible to receive their second dose as per monograph ]
The Ontario government is adding high-risk health care workers to the list of those eligible to receive their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier than the extended four-month interval.
Eligibility for booking will begin by the end of the week of May 10, 2021 and booking details will be provided in the coming days.
High-risk health care workers who will be eligible for the shortened second-dose interval are:
All hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients and/or with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19, including nurses and personal support workers and those performing aerosol-generating procedures:
Critical Care Units
Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Departments
COVID-19 Medical Units
Code Blue Teams, rapid response teams
General internal medicine and other specialists involved in the direct care of COVID-19 positive patients
All patient-facing health care workers involved in the COVID-19 response:
Teams supporting outbreak response (e.g., IPAC teams supporting outbreak management, inspectors in the patient environment, redeployed health care workers supporting outbreaks or staffing crisis in congregate living settings)
COVID-19 vaccine clinics and mobile immunization teams
Mobile Testing Teams
COVID-19 Isolation Centers
COVID-19 Laboratory Services
Current members of Ontario’s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT) who may be deployed at any time to support an emergency response
Medical First Responders
ORNGE
Paramedics
Firefighters providing medical first response as part of their regular duties
Police and special constables providing medical first response as part of their regular duties
Community health care workers serving specialized populations including:
Needle exchange/syringe programs and supervised consumption and treatment services
Indigenous health care service providers including but not limited to:
Aboriginal Health Access Centers, Indigenous Community Health Centers,
Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Teams, and Indigenous Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics
Long-term care home and retirement-home health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers and Essential Caregivers
Individuals working in Community Health Centers serving disproportionally affected communities and/or communities experiencing highest burden of health, social and economic impacts from COVID-19
Critical health care workers in remote and hard to access communities, e.g., sole practitioner
Home and community care health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers caring for recipients of chronic homecare and seniors in congregate living facilities or providing hands-on care to COVID-19 patients in the community
During the week of May 10-16, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) is celebrating Nursing Week to recognize the vital contributions nurses make to the delivery of quality patient care in Thunder Bay and across Northwestern Ontario. Nursing Week coincides with the birthday of the iconic nurse Florence Nightingale who was born on May 12th. She became known for her work in caring for casualties during the Crimean War and her visionary advancement for the nursing profession.
“We have always depended on the resilience of nurses,” said Dr. Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, President and CEO, of TBRHSC and CEO of Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute, who started her career as a nurse at the Hospital 30 years ago. “But these past 14 months during the pandemic have shown us the passion and professionalism of our nurses. I encourage everyone to join me in thanking them for their incredible contribution to communities.”
Nurses are vital to TBRHSC’s front line response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to their direct patient care roles, many have taken on additional duties and responsibilities to help protect the health and safety of the community. For example, nurses are leading the testing at our COVID-19 Assessment Centre, administering hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines every day to Hospital staff and members of the community, and learning new and advanced skills to support our pandemic response.
“I am in complete admiration of our nurses’ courage, dedication to patients and the teamwork they so naturally bring to caring for patients and each other,” said Meaghan Sharp, Chief Nursing Executive at TBRHSC. “Even during this time of physical distancing, nurses still provide the human connection patients need to help them heal as they navigate illness and uncertainty. Thank you!”
In recognition of this wide scope of duties during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Nursing Association (CNA) has identified this year’s theme of ‘We Answer the Call’. It was developed by the CNA to showcase the many roles that nurses play in a patient’s health care journey. The pandemic brought to light the courage and commitment that nurses work under every day and showed the important role that nurses play in the community.
Every year in May, Nurses and Nursing Support Staff are recognized for the care and compassion they provide to their patients and their families.
It is nearly impossible to find the right words to thank, and describe what Nurses and Nursing Support Staff have done over the last year, which has been remarkable in so many ways.
Nurses and Nursing Support Staff are invited to share your honest reflections on the last year, whether they be triumphs or challenges.
Submissions will be shared during Nursing Week (May 10-16) in our Daily Informed Newsletter and on the Hospital’s social media. To share your reflections, visit https://tbrhsc.net/nw/ and fill out the online form.
Thank you to the COVID-19 vaccination team for their dedicated efforts. It has been a tremendous undertaking, but the team has been highly motivated by the promise the vaccine provides to all for a return to pre-pandemic life. To those who have already been vaccinated or booked their vaccinations, thank you for your commitment to the safety and protection of all.
Please remember to contact Occupational Health & Safety to advise them of your vaccination (1st & 2nd doses) and submit your receipt of vaccine at ohs@tbh.net.
Regular updates to the Meditech EMR are required every 2-3 years, with the last update occurring in October 2019. We are expected to receive delivery of the next Meditech update in our TEST environment at the end of June 2021, with an anticipated Go LIVE date in early October 2021. This update is considered a relatively minor incremental update, but as always, has the potential to impact and/or improve workflow and existing functionality.
During this period over the summer, new project and report requests for the TBRHSC/SJCG IS/IT team will be limited. Significant changes in Meditech TEST will also be limited in order to maintain consistency in this environment.
Additional information is expected to be shared in July/August as our Meditech team works through testing and review of fixes, enhancements and potential impacts to work flow.
If you have any questions please reach out to Krysta Logozzo Daniele at logozzok@tbh.net
