MAY/JUNE 2018 MAY/JUNE JOURNAL LymeTICKING BOMB As instances of Lyme disease continue to increase, greater awareness is needed among health professionals to help ease suffering. AGM 2018 • Nursing Week • Q&A with Ontario’s chief nurse 416.736.0200 4211 Yonge Street, Suite #210 Toronto (just south of 401) FAMILY LAW • DIVORCE • SEPARATION • CHILD CUSTODY/ACCESS • SEPARATION AGREEMENTS • CHILD/SPOUSAL SUPPORT • DIVISION OF PROPERTY • MEDIATION / COLLABORATIVE LAW • WILLS & POWERS OF ATTORNEY • To all members of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, we offer you a free, one hour initial consultation and 10% off* all our services. *Excluding Wills and Powers of Attorney Regional Offices Aurora 16 Industrial Parkway South Barrie 500 Mapleton Avenue, Suite A Downtown Toronto 100 King Street West • Suite #5600 Mississauga 2 Robert Speck Parkway, Suite 750 Scarborough 10 Milner Business Court • 3rd Floor Recommended by: TORONTO POLI CE www.lisagelman.com First to respond since 1952 416.736.0200 4211 Yonge Street, Suite #210 Toronto (just south of 401) VOL. 30, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2018 MAY/JUNE 3, NO. 30, VOL. CONTENTS FAMILY LAW • DIVORCE FEATURES 22 10 Nursing Week • SEPARATION Members celebrate the profession with events and gatherings in their communi- ties and workplaces. • CHILD CUSTODY/ACCESS Compiled by Kimberley Kearsey • SEPARATION AGREEMENTS SPECIAL *PULL-OUT* SECTION 13 AGM 2018: Powering nursing to advance health • CHILD/SPOUSAL SUPPORT Coverage of this spring’s annual general meeting (AGM), including a celebratory • DIVISION OF PROPERTY spread of the newest BPSO designates. By Kimberley Kearsey 13 Photography by Victoria Alarcon, • MEDIATION / COLLABORATIVE LAW Alicia Saunders, Marion Zych 21 The look of change • WILLS & POWERS OF ATTORNEY We reflect back on the early 1990s in this • To all members of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, we third installment of our series to mark offer you a free, one hour initial consultation and 10% off* all 30 years of RNJ. By Kimberley Kearsey our services. *Excluding Wills and Powers of Attorney 22 COVER STORY Ticking Lyme bomb Regional Offices Talk of Lyme disease is ramping up Aurora with the arrival of warmer weather. What do nurses need to understand 30 16 Industrial Parkway South about the disease to help ease the Barrie suffering of those infected? THE LINEUP 500 Mapleton Avenue, Suite A By Daniel Punch 5 PRESIDENT’S VIEW Downtown Toronto 26 Ontario’s new chief nurse 6 CEO DISPATCH Since January 2018 Michelle Acorn has 7 NURSING NOTES 100 King Street West • Suite #5600 8 NURSING IN THE NEWS been providing the ministry of health with 12 RN PROFILE Mississauga advice on the nursing profession. 28 POLICY AT WORK 2 Robert Speck Parkway, Suite 750 By Daniel Punch 30 IN THE END Crystal McLeod writes about her connection Scarborough with rural nursing in this issue. 10 Milner Business Court • 3rd Floor Recommended by: TORONTO POLI CE www.lisagelman.com REGISTERED NURSE JOURNAL 3 First to respond since 1952 The journal of the REGISTERED NURSES’ EDITOR’S NOTE KIMBERLEY KEARSEY ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO (RNAO) 158 Pearl Street Toronto ON, M5H 1L3 Phone: 416-599-1925 Toll-Free: 1-800-268-7199 Fax: 416-599-1926 Website: RNAO.ca Email: [email protected] Letters to the editor: [email protected] EDITORIAL STAFF Marion Zych, Publisher Kimberley Kearsey, Managing Editor Bravery behind every story Victoria Alarcon, Editorial Assistant Alicia Saunders, Communications Assistant EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Laryssa Vares, Desmond Devoy, Una Ferguson, Larissa Gadsby, Chad Johnson, Elizabeth Kerr, Joanne Laucius, Maria Rugg WHILE GREETING MEMBERS AT OUR Sue Faber is another member ART DIRECTION & DESIGN Fresh Art & Design Inc. communications booth at the who has let down her walls and ADVERTISING annual general meeting (AGM) offered up the very personal story Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario in April, I met several people of her family’s struggle with Phone: 416-599-1925 Fax: 416-599-1926 who wanted to share their Lyme disease (page 22). She was SUBSCRIPTIONS personal stories. Their raw at the AGM to present a Registered Nurse Journal, ISSN 1484-0863, is a emotions ranged from excite- resolution that she hopes will benefit to members of the RNAO. Paid subscriptions are welcome. Full subscription prices for one year ment at upcoming travel plans not only raise awareness but (six issues), including taxes: Canada $38 (HST); to help vulnerable people on also lead to earlier diagnosis Outside Canada: $45. Printed with vegetable-based inks on recycled paper (50 per cent recycled and another continent, to sadness and better treatment of the 20 per cent post-consumer fibre) on acid-free paper. and frustration around issues of disease. She told me that when Registered Nurse Journal is published six times a suicide and workplace injury. she started to talk to colleagues year by RNAO. The views or opinions expressed in the editorials, articles or advertisements are those It’s not easy to open up your at the AGM about how her of the authors/advertisers and do not necessarily personal life to people you experience led to the resolu- represent the policies of RNAO or the Editorial Advisory Committee. RNAO assumes no responsibility don’t know, and I’m truly tion, she got hugs and thanks or liability for damages arising from any error or moved and appreciative of from people who didn’t realize omission or from the use of any information or advice contained in the Registered Nurse Journal those who do it. In most cases, the extent of the problem. Her including editorials, studies, reports, letters and it’s to raise awareness of an interactions, she said, made advertisements. All articles and photos accepted for publication become the property of RNAO. issue that needs attention. And her realize her vulnerability Indexed in Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. real-life stories are the best way was worth offering up. to get that attention. These personal anecdotes are CANADIAN POSTMASTER Undeliverable copies and change of address to: During the keynote presenta- vital to the stories we tell in this RNAO, 158 Pearl Street, Toronto ON, M5H 1L3. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40006768. tion on the last day of our magazine. We need real people AGM, Louise White stepped up with real experiences to help us RNAO OFFICERS AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT Angela Cooper Brathwaite, RN, MN, PhD to the mic and told a room of personalize bigger issues. Each President 300+ people about her family’s first-hand account helps others Carol Timmings, RN, BScN, MEd (Admin) Immediate Past-President experience with addiction. It’s realize that some of the most Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), Dr(hc), hard to imagine the courage complex health and health-care O.ONT, Chief Executive Officer, ext. 206 that takes. And she continues issues come down to real people Nancy Campbell, MBA to share her story in this issue and real lives. There’s no better Director, Finance and Administration, ext. 229 Daniel Lau, MBA (page 12) and through speaking way to impact policy and Director, Membership and Services, ext. 218 engagements and online decision-making than by Louis-Charles Lavallée, CMC, MBA forums in hopes it will help bringing these stories forward. Director, Information Management and Technology, ext. 264 other families dealing with the Thank you to all who are Marion Zych, BA, Journalism, BA, Political Science same harsh reality that willing to open up to help others. Director, Communications, ext. 209 addiction does not Your generosity has not gone discriminate. unnoticed. RN MAG AL AZI N NE IO T A A W A REGISTERED NURSE JOURNAL N R 8 linkx D 1 0 S 2 Gold is proud to exclusively feature members of 2 0 S linkx 1 D Medal 8 R N A A W RNAO on the pages of this magazine. T A I O E N N I A Z L A M linkxG A 4 MAY/JUNE 2018 PRESIDENT’S VIEW ANGELA COOPER BRATHWAITE My pledge: to support, serve and advocate IT IS A PRIVILEGE AND HONOUR TO An important part of advo- have already elected a new to mention RNAO’s robust serve as RNAO’s 55th president. cating for patients is recognizing government. However, that does professional liability protection, When Carol Timmings passed Ontario’s diversity. Based on my not change our resolve or our which is included as a benefit of the ceremonial gavel to me clinical observations, we can do a approach to our policy and membership, and the Legal during RNAO’s annual general better job delivering culturally political action. We will continue Assistance Program (LAP), which meeting (AGM), I pledged to competent care. When the care to engage all parties to ensure we can each choose to join. support, serve and advocate. That we provide matches a patient’s or all our recommendations We are 41,130 members is my motto for my presidency. resident’s perception of their become policy. strong and growing. It’s my For those of you who don’t know me, I am sharing a bit of “ WE ARE 41,130 MEMBERS STRONG AND GROWING. my journey from the bedside to the boardroom. I began my IT’S MY GOAL TO HAVE 45,000 MEMBERS BY THE END OF MY career in clinical practice, PRESIDENCY IN 2020.” working in different sectors and different roles, including public health problems, incorporates Together with our board of goal to have 45,000 members health and primary care. their individual beliefs and directors and CEO, I will support by the end of my presidency in Following two decades on the practices into care planning, and you in advancing nurses as 2020. We can do it.