President's Message

The Community Health Nurses’ Initiatives Group (CHNIG) continues to be a strong and vibrant organization – an organization celebrating 23 years of advocacy and leadership for community health nursing in Ontario. I am honoured to represent community health nurses in Ontario as President of CHNIG and fortunate to be able to build on the momentum established by recent leadership of Kim Miller-Dalla Bona, Ruth Schofield, Barb Mildon and others with the tremendous support from RNAO.

CHNIG is committed to act as a voice for community health nurses, influencing the health care system, and health and social policy in areas which affect the work of community health nurses and the public we serve.

The diversity of the CHNIG executive and membership is significant to our functioning. Although we have common beliefs and values, each member’s unique focus and expertise contributes to our strength.  CHNIG also has several teams of Community Health Nurses from across Ontario working to help CHNIG meet our collective goals. These teams, with their broad range of expertise, are critical to the function of CHNIG. The professional practice team, for example, has 25 members.
 
The CHNIG executive feels it’s important to connect with our membership. With our new website we have interactive capability and have launched an on-line member survey. You might have noticed our pop up encouraging you to visit our survey. We want your opinion about issues that matter to you regarding political action and policy direction. Please take a moment during your visit to our website and give us your opinion. Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us with your concerns, questions or comments.
 
CHNIG is a strong and credible organization. Working together, community health nurses have the talent, knowledge and leadership to shape the future of community health nursing and health in Ontario.  The CHNIG executive is very active as the voice of community health nurses on significant issues impacting the future of nursing and the health of Ontarians.

On October 6th, Ontario nurses will vote for better health care, a cleaner environment, and equitable and vibrant communities. Community Health Nurses know what determines a person’s ability to be healthy.

RNAO has set out six priorities for the coming election in their platform Vibrant Communities:

http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=924&ContentID=3176.

With leadership and political will, we can create vibrant communities.