Vaccine Policy Communications and the Right to Choose

Hi everyone. Welcome to Group One's presentation on the Covid vaccine policy.

Um and the hospital vaccination mandates.

Um today,

group one which consists of Kalinka Genelle Taylor Cheryl and myself in it.

Um Today we are going to discuss the different perspectives that

exist around the mandates specifically within the Ontario health care system

um around vaccination as well as the

mode in which those mandates have been communicated

uh discrepancies um including misinformation that exists.

Hospital mandate, communications,

hospital and regulatory body communications um and then tying

it all back to our course uh perspectives of course

goals as it relates to leaders communicating those mandates

um and discrepancies and challenges that exist within that process

now.

Um, when reflecting on the learning outcomes of this presentation, um,

we hope to touch on the areas of unclear communications um,

that ultimately result in confusion across sectors.

Um we also hope to address the leadership um

accountability of the importance of accountability within leadership roles and

ensuring that leaders are accountable to all employees within an organization

um as well as addressing the presence of the

different perspectives um that support ultimately a diverse workplace,

um, but may also result in some risks within regulatory standards.

Um, and as such conflict um,

with some of the policies that are in place within the hospitals.

Okay, so now we're moving on to the different perspectives.

So we have health care centers

um, and their communications,

we have the vaccine mandates and along with that is a personal

choice and how personal choice can be affected with the vaccine mandates.

Uh so we're gonna start with the mode of communicating mandates.

So memos were sent to staff who are working in these hospitals

outlining the details of these mandates.

And then policies were also sent me an email and posted on

hospital websites that everyone had access to view them

senior leadership of

making verbal announcement.

So those who are in senior leadership roles are ensuring

that accurate information is being sent towards to their employees.

Um as well as news releases and new hire requirements.

Um, so that being for the new higher requirements

um if you don't have your two vaccines at the date of hire,

then unfortunately you will not be hired for that specific role.

So along with that comes misinformation.

So the provincial leader noting vaccination is not mandated and

that vaccine policy is up to each individual organization.

Um then the Ministry of Health will not mandate

the COVID-19 vaccines for hospital workers as well.

So, originally no mandate for vaccines was in place as testing was an option.

But currently vaccination mandates are in place with

impacts to employment requirements are not met.

And then this is up to the discretion of the institution.

Hospital and long term care are under different vaccine policies.

So hospitals may start

terminating employment based on vaccine policies,

but long term care could have previously done

those and have different policies in place.

Now we're moving on to hospital mandate communications.

So we have strict vaccine mandates for

all staff with proof of vaccination required,

unvaccinated healthcare workers face implications to

employment status and third party vaccine

requirements for all entering the hospital

environment except for those receiving care.

Um So this just feeds off the last slide.

So now we are implementing these vaccines and

dates for staff even though they were under the

impression that before they would be able to

refuse the vaccine with just getting regular testing.

But now

you're not even allowed to go into the hospitals without proof

of second doses to accompany someone who is receiving care.

Mhm.

So how does ultimately all of that

information tie into communication and leadership?

Well, within just as taylor ways sharing.

There are a number of different pieces

of misinformation as well as challenges around um

the both the modes as well as um the way in sort

of language that people use to be able to communicate those mandates.

Um and those are only some of the challenges that do exist within um communicating.

Uh these vaccination mandates as a whole.

Um So some of those challenges um include things like changing

government communications and this tends to happen at all levels.

Um So there are some messages um that are shared from

the federal level which really speaks to vaccine rollout um and other

um sort of vaccine passports and other sort of regulatory

components when it comes to the national and international level

versus when you move down to the provincial level. You are looking at um

the communications around the social environments as well as

what people expected was going to be.

Um mandates around hospital and long term care requirements.

Um and then you moved on to the

municipalities that are really communicating more specifics around um

the municipal organizations being emergency services and such.

And there's also the use of

different communication platforms to communicate regulations.

So this can be both a challenge as well as a strength in the fact that

um individuals and organizations are communicating.

Um just as taylor was noting within the modes of communication

of using verbal expression as well as using email communication.

Um and being able to share a policy

with organization wide

now, um

what you can be aware of as well um is that

the workplace is very diverse and there are different abilities,

different age groups, strengths and areas of challenge.

So,

um those different platforms that are

used to communicate those regulations may not

be supportive for all individuals and

communications therefore may not be standard

standardized across a certain organization because of

the diverse population that's accessing it.

Um and then a final challenge we noted was acknowledgement of exemptions.

Well maintaining policy um,

organizations are definitely aware that there are medical exemptions as

well as exemptions um around religious grounds and other factors that

uh they are able to sort of identify.

Um but in the same token they still want to ensure that policy is followed.

So um it's definitely an additional challenge,

especially when you are looking at how strict things are

around vaccine policy within the healthcare environment.

Now, within the vaccine mandate,

communications um just to give you a little bit of a timeline on

September the 22nd on there was an Ontario wide mandate that was communicated

um to allow for public um

venues

to be able to require vaccination

and that was communicated by the Ontario Premier.

Um but on October 30, a mandate was communicated by North York General Hospital,

which there's definitely other hospitals.

So this is just one example.

Um but they provided the vaccine mandate policy with a deadline

of November the 30th for staff to be able to get vaccinated

um with unpaid leave for those not yet fully vaccinated on

november the third Ontario um are sorry the Healthcare minister,

the Health Minister of Ontario ended up releasing a statement

saying that Ontario will not mandate hospital workers to get vaccinated

Um and sort of being mindful of the dates,

you can see that on September the 22nd um

Ontario was open to mandating within public environments.

So

for them to not want to

mandate vaccination

within the hospital environment was something that many people questioned

then.

Finally on november the 30th vaccination mandate was communicated again

by north york general um with job loss from human resources

uh that was communicated by the human resources department

now, although there's different messages uh did end up being shared.

Um there were definitely some successes that came out of um communications,

whether that be across the government or across the hospitals itself.

Um the communications that came out were uh communications

that were out of concern for the vulnerable population,

vulnerable populations and the public.

Um so these communications um although they did recognize um the

uh

sort of the human right for personal choice and

personal choice around healthcare or health related decisions.

Um the concern that was communicated around the importance of vaccination to

ensure as many people's safety as possible uh was a huge success for

for leaders who are communicating their mandate.

Um also deadlines were communicated to

employees with extensions when appropriate.

So although yes, there were

Mandates that were set out saying, Okay, as of November 30,

you need to ensure that full vaccination is achieved.

Um there were also some exemptions or extensions to that time frame

that were provided um which really supports the accommodation side of things.

And then finally,

the accessible accessible policy information around

vaccine mandates that definitely increased um

across sort of all sectors,

because not only was it sort of expected that

the government ended up communicating mandates through news releases,

but it came down to organizations as well as a whole.

So looking at the hospital system,

uh communicating mandates through,

uh through those news releases through uh posting on their websites,

through email, communication

and ultimately through leaders of each team, being able to have conversations

With their employees one on 1.

So when it does come to the communication of these

vaccination mandates,

um although again it is recognized there

that different perspectives do exist across the system

um and across human population and the diverse population within Canada.

Um there is also a piece of really being able

to identify and recognize the concern for each individual safety

um and within the healthcare system.

Uh the leaders are doing the best that they can to navigate

um not only misinformation around vaccines um but also

misinformation or confusion of information around the different um

policies that are set out by the different levels of government.

So overall,

um there's definitely um a complex network that

of communications that has existed around vaccine policy.

Um and as uh sort of speaking to groups as speaking on behalf of Group one,

we definitely want to know your thoughts.

Um so what are your thoughts around um the

component of integrating personal choice into the vaccination policy?

Um and what do you feel uh that leaders can be able to grow and do better.

Um so looking forward to hearing from you guys

and thanks so much for listening to our presentation.

Have a good night, everyone take care

Vaccine Policy Communications and the Right to Choose

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