Practical strategies and the need for psychological support: recommendations from nurses working in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeNurses working during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have reported elevated levels of anxiety, burnout and sleep disruption. Hospital administrators are in a unique position to mitigate or exacerbate stressful working conditions. The goal of this study was to capture the recommendations of nurses providing frontline care during the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 36 nurses living in Canada and working in Canada or the United States.FindingsThe following recommendations were identified from reflexive thematic analysis of interview transcripts: (1) The nurses emphasized the need for a leadership style that embodied visibility, availability and careful planning. (2) Information overload contributed to stress, and participants appealed for clear, consistent and transparent communication. (3) A more resilient healthcare supply chain was required to safeguard the distribution of equipment, supplies and medications. (4) Clear communication of policies related to sick leave, pay equity and workload was necessary. (5) Equity should be considered, particularly with regard to redeployment. (6) Nurses wanted psychological support offered by trusted providers, managers and peers.Practical implicationsOver-reliance on employee assistance programmes and other individualized approaches to virtual care were not well-received. An integrative systems-based approach is needed to address the multifaceted mental health outcomes and reduce the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nursing workforce.Originality/valueResults of this study capture the recommendations made by nurses during in-depth interviews conducted early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada's Employment Equity Acts and the communications industry: effective social regulation in a neo-liberal era.

"Canada's Royal Commission on Equality and Employment drafted in the early 1980s and the two versions of the Employment Equity Act it later inspired can be understood within this shift towards social regulation as defined by Nementz et. al. To appreciate how Canadian corporations are now mandated to achieve progress towards employment equity, it is critical to its history, its incarnations and its impact on corporate Canada. Curiously, while there was a sizeable amount of quantitative and qualitative research endorsing legislated employment equity written prior to the initial Act, there is only a handful of academic research evaluating its success. Academic space devoted to employment equity has existed mainly as a sidebar in a more extensive analysis of other policies such as the key works of Judy Fudge, Anver Saloojee, Patricia McDermott and Annis May Timpson which appraise employment equity, but as a benchmark against which to compare to other policies such as child care and pay equity. Through a literature review of the primary and secondary documents, which respectively shaped and critiqued the Act's two manifestations as well as case studies of communications companies, I will show that this legislation - an example of social regulation in a neo-liberal era - was particularly effective once an audit component was added."--Page 3.

Canada's Employment Equity Acts and the communications industry: effective social regulation in a neo-liberal era.

"Canada's Royal Commission on Equality and Employment drafted in the early 1980s and the two versions of the Employment Equity Act it later inspired can be understood within this shift towards social regulation as defined by Nementz et. al. To appreciate how Canadian corporations are now mandated to achieve progress towards employment equity, it is critical to its history, its incarnations and its impact on corporate Canada. Curiously, while there was a sizeable amount of quantitative and qualitative research endorsing legislated employment equity written prior to the initial Act, there is only a handful of academic research evaluating its success. Academic space devoted to employment equity has existed mainly as a sidebar in a more extensive analysis of other policies such as the key works of Judy Fudge, Anver Saloojee, Patricia McDermott and Annis May Timpson which appraise employment equity, but as a benchmark against which to compare to other policies such as child care and pay equity. Through a literature review of the primary and secondary documents, which respectively shaped and critiqued the Act's two manifestations as well as case studies of communications companies, I will show that this legislation - an example of social regulation in a neo-liberal era - was particularly effective once an audit component was added."--Page 3.

Intersections and Roads Untravelled: Sex and Family Status in Fraser v Canada

It has been a long road to the judicial recognition of women’s inequality under the Cana‑ dian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.1 The Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Fraser v Can‑ ada is significant for being the first decision where a majority of the Court found adverse effects discrimination based on sex under section 15,2 and it was only two years prior that a claim of sex discrimination in favour of women was finally successful at the Court,3 almost 30 years after their first section 15 decision in Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia. 4 1 Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11 [Charter], s 15. 2 Fraser v Canada (Attorney General), 2020 SCC 28 [Fraser]. 3 Quebec (Attorney General) v Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux, 2018 SCC 17 [Alliance] (majority found sex discrimination under s 15 and rejected the government’s justification argument under s 1 in the pay equity context). See also Centrale des syndicats du Québec v Quebec (Attorney General), 2018 SCC 18 [Centrale] (majority found violation of s 15 but accepted the government’s s 1 argument, also in the pay equity context). For comments on these decisions see Fay Faraday, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Substantive Equality, Systemic Discrimination and Pay Equity at the Supreme Court of Canada” (2020) 94 SCLR (2d) 301; Jonnette Watson Hamilton & Jennifer Koshan, “Equality Rights and Pay Equity: Déjà Vu in the Supreme Court of Canada” (2019) 15 JL & Equality 1. See also British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association, 2014 SCC 70 (a one-paragraph decision restoring an arbitrator’s award allowing a s 15 employment benefits claim by women); Newfoundland (Treasury Board) v NAPE, 2004 SCC 66 (finding a violation of s 15 but accepting the government’s s 1 argument, again in the pay equity context).4 [1989] 1 SCR 143, 56 DLR (4th) 1.