The Nursing Task Force was established in response to concerns regarding the future supply and retention of RNs and RPNs in the nursing profession in Ontario. Two key recommendations of the Nursing Task Force were to :

1. Immediately enhance health care delivery through nursing services by stabilizing the nursing workforce and improving retention of existing nursing.
2. Provide ongoing structured opportunities for RNs and RPNs to participate in a meaningful way in decisions that affect patient care on both a corporate and operational level.

In response to recommendation 1, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care announced on March 19, 1999 that the government would provide $375 million to create 12,000 new nursing positions by March 31, 2001. Part of this commitment is the Nursing Enhancement Fund (NEF) earmarked for the creation of new, permanent full-time and part-time positions. The Government's commitment to nursing in 1999/2000 included investing :

• $130 million new base funding annually to hospitals to create 3,300 new nursing positions in 1999/2000;
• $24 million in new funding annually to in-home services of which a minimum of 60 percent was to be spent on nursing services to create 500 new nursing positions in 1999/2000; and,
• $20 million in new funding annually to long-term care (LTC) facilities to create 650 new nursing positions in 1999/2000.

The remainder of the investment is allocated through new and existing programs (i.e. priority programs, Emergency room funding, etc.) as well as for basic and continuing education for nurses, nursing research, hiring nurse practitioners, and recruitment and retention strategies.

The NEF was made available to hospitals, LTC facilities and Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) in Ontario, provided that each organization develop and implement a nursing plan consistent with the government's nursing strategy.

The complete report is available for download at the link below.

FULL REPORT Review and Audit of the 1999/2000 Nursing Enhancement Fund 82 pages | 218 k | PDF format

To view PDF format files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer.    You can download this free software from the Adobe Web site.

April 2001