From the Yom Kippur War to the war on COVID: Top Ontario nurse pleads with Canadians to stay cautious

At age 17, Doris Grinspun moved to Israel, where she enrolled in nursing school in Jerusalem. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, even though she was still a student, Grinspun was thrown into action anyway, caring for wounded Israeli soldiers in the burn unit. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor who fled to Chile during the war—where she was born and raised—Grinspun was no stranger to generational trauma.

Now, she's working on the frontlines of a different war: against COVID-19 and anti-vax misinformation, and alongside thousands of nurses whose industry has reached a breaking point.

As head of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, a lobby group representing Ontario's 45,000 nurses, Grinspun advises Premier Doug Ford frequently and has handled, by her count, more than 8,000 media requests about the pandemic.

She joins today to share a glimpse into the dire situation facing Ontario's health care system, including an exodus of nurses fleeing to the United States for higher wages and what she fears is a too-fast economic reopening.

What we talked about:

• Visit the RNAO website at rnao.ca
• Read Grinspun's blog at doris-blog.rnao.ca
• See the obituary notice for Rabbi Mordechai Glick at dignitymemorial.com
• Learn more about Time For My Story at timeformystory.com

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.