![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20100513\/McGuinty1.jpg\")
ised inserting intravenous lines into patient mannequins. Dressed casually, the premier was openly animated as he chatted with students and spoke about his own undergraduate degree in biology and his youthful dream of entering medicine.<\/p>\nOntario Premier Dalton McGuinty was at York University on Monday to mark the start of National Nursing Week, and chaired a round-table discussion that included undergraduate nursing students and graduate students in the nurse practitioner program.<\/p>\n
McGuinty, accompanied by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and York West MPP Mario Sergio, began his visit with a tour of the University\u2019s state-of-the-art Nursing Resource Centre and watched as nursing students practised inserting intravenous lines into patient mannequins. Dressed casually, the premier was openly animated as he chatted with students and spoke about his own undergraduate degree in biology and his youthful dream of entering medicine.<\/p>\n
Left: McGuinty (left) is greeted by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and York West MPP Mario Sergio<\/strong><\/p>\n As he toured the facility, McGuinty met and spoke with students\u00a0enrolled in\u00a0York\u2019s bachelor of science\u00a0in nursing (BScN), the second entry BScN\u00a0program, the BScN for internationally educated nurses and the master of science in nursing program for nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n The premier\u2019s visit coincided with this week\u2019s announcement by the provincial government that it was seeking applications to create 14 more nurse practitioner-led clinics, with a goal of having 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics by 2012. (The first cluster of 11 nurse practitioner-led clinics is set to open later this month.) In Ontario, nurse practitioners are able to treat common illnesses and injuries, Right: The premier chats with nursing students as they practise on a mannequin<\/strong><\/p>\n Sitting down to\u00a0begin the round table, McGuinty was greeted by Lesley Beagrie, associate dean of professional & global programs in the School of Nursing in York's Faculty of Health. Beagrie thanked the premier for the funding that has made both the Nursing Resource Centre and programs such as the second-year entry and internationally educated BScN programs possible.<\/p>\n Following Beagrie's welcoming remarks, the premier opened the round-table discussion. \u201cI want to take this opportunity to thank the students for pursuing, with passion, a career in nursing as it is a calling,\u201d he said. He\u00a0described\u00a0nursing as\u00a0a profession that cares just not for patients but for mothers, fathers, children, siblings, neighbours\u00a0and friends. \"These aren't just any people, they are really important to all of us,\" he said.<\/p>\n McGuinty\u00a0spoke with reverence of the knowledge and skill required by nursing professionals and how far nursing has come since 1949, when his mother was a nurse, eliciting a laugh as he recounted a story about a colleague of his mother's\u00a0who\u00a0forgot to cut up a patient's grapefruit and was required, as punishment, to\u00a0write out 500 times how she would not forget to cut\u00a0up a grapefruit in the future.<\/p>\n The Ontario premier then\u00a0talked about his government's vision for health care and the important role nursing professionals would play in bringing that vision to reality. \"The first thing our government did was to make sure that there\u00a0are more of you. As of today, we are up to 10,700 more nursing positions in Ontario,\" he said.<\/p>\n The government, said McGuinty, through a program\u00a0based on best practices,\u00a0is now allowing nursing professionals to conduct tests, including those\u00a0to detect colorectal cancer. Nurses will also be able to\u00a0work as surgical first assistants and in long-term care emergency mobile teams. He reiterated his\u00a0enthusiasm for nurse practitioner-led clinics:\u00a0\u201cOntario has the first nurse practitioner-led clinics in North America,\u201d said McGuinty, \u201cwith 11 at various stages in terms of being\u00a0phased in and today\u00a0the government issued an announcement for the next 14 clinics. So there will be a total of 25 such clinics in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n \"Nurse practitioners in Ontario will now be able to communicate a diagnosis, order diagnostic tests such as an MRI\u00a0or CT scan, cast a fracture and prescribe medications,\" he said. \"We are also talking about permitting our nurse practitioners to admit and discharge patients into and from a hospital, and introduced a new package of reforms that will be important to nurse practitioners. Up to\u00a0now,\u00a0hospitals have been required to seek advice on health issues\u00a0exclusively from an all-physician advisory committee. Now we are going to ensure that nurses and other health professionals can\u00a0provide that advice on health as well.\"<\/p>\n The innovations are required, said the premier, to help combat the rising cost of health care in Ontario. The cost has moved from a figure of 32 cents\u00a0for every program dollar spent by the government 20 years ago, to a current cost of 46 cents per dollar, and is estimated to reach 70 cents of every program dollar spent in 12 years if action is not taken, diverting money from other critically needed areas including infrastructure, schools, environmental protection and services.\u00a0The nurse practitioner-led clinics and\u00a0reforms to\u00a0reduce costs of prescription drugs in the province are two such measures aimed at reducing exploding health-care costs.\u00a0\"Such clinics and nursing education programs form an integral part of the province\u2019s Open Ontario Plan created to strengthen public health care,\" said the premier.<\/p>\n Following his comments, McGuinty opened the discussion to students, hearing more about why they had chosen the profession. For master's student Deana Ruddell-Thomson,\u00a0the experience of watching family and friends\u00a0cope with illness caused by tainted water during the Walkerton\u00a0tragedy more than 10 years ago solidified her desire to study nursing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20100513\/mcguintywithstudents.jpg\")
and order X-rays, lab tests and other diagnostic tests. They can also refer patients to specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20100513\/McGuintyspeaking.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n Above: McGuinty, centre, addresses nursing students gathered for\u00a0a round-table discussion<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20100513\/studentstalk.jpg\")
Left: Student Thomas McCormick\u00a0talks about why\u00a0he decided to become a nurse and of his plan to travel to a remote community in northern Ontario to work in a community clinic<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20100513\/mcguintythanks.jpg\")
ked McGuinty for visiting York and presented him with a copy of York University: The Way Must be Tried <\/em>by York\u00a0 Professor Emeritus and University historian\u00a0Michiel Horn. \"Thank you very much for choosing York University to kick-start Nursing Week,\" said Shoukri. \"We see you as the champion of postsecondary education and the champion of health care. We thank you for being that champion and we are committed to working with you to improve both postsecondary education and health care in Ontario.\"<\/p>\n