Don't miss your chance to hear Michael Decter's keynote address to Alberta RNs on April 30

Registered Nurses Deserve the Respect of all Canadians

"There is urgent need to repair the damage done to nursing through a decade of health care reform and restructuring. The case for constructive change is compelling. However, simply to endeavour to return to better days will not meet the needs of Canadians for high-quality nursing services as a mainstay of our broader health care system."

WITH those words, Michael Decter set the tone in the preface of the final report released by the Canadian Nursing Advisory Council (CNAC) in August 2002. Decter chaired the advisory council assigned by Health Canada to make recommendations to improve the quality of work life for Canada's nurses. Released in August 2002, RNs across the country have since applauded the recommendations of CNAC's report, Our Health, Our Future: Creating Quality Workplaces for Canadian Nurses.

A Harvard-trained economist, Decter has worked for two decades in senior positions in both the public and the private sector. He is a leading Canadian expert on health systems with a wealth of international experience. Currently the chairperson of the National Board for the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Decter served as deputy minister of health for Ontario (1991-93) and clerk of the executive council and secretary to the cabinet in Manitoba (1982-86). Decter is also well known for his role as chief negotiator for the Ontario Social Contract in the spring of the 1993.

Consulting work has taken Decter across Canada and around the world. Positions have included negotiations with the James Bay Cree, assessing projects in Nairobi, Kenya and Shanghai for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). As a negotiator and facilitator, Decter has represented governments, corporations and hospitals. In negotiations such as the 1991 Framework Agreement between the Ontario Government and the Ontario Medical Association, Decter achieved consensus when both parties were far from agreement on anything.

Decter's first book, Healing Medicare-- Managing Health System Change the Canadian Way, was published in the fall of 1994. Recently released, his third book, Four Strong Winds: Understanding the Growing Challenges to Health Care, shows readers the new realities of health care management. The book examines health care reform: the forces driving reform, and the results in major countries with case studies.

The topic of Decter's second book, Michael Decter's Million Dollar Strategy: Building Your Own Retirement in Just Thirty Minutes a Day, is surprisingly, not related to health care at all. After endless requests from friends and colleagues to explain how he did it, he wrote a book based on over a decade of Decter's own investing experience; how he successfully grew his retirement fund from less than $50,000 to over $1.5 million in 10 years.

Members can borrow the CNAC report and Decter's book Healing MedicareManaging Health System Change the Canadian Way from the AARN Library. Requests are accepted online at www.nurses.ab.ca or by calling 1.800.252.9392 ext 533 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear Michael Decter in person at the AARN annual meeting and conference on April 30 in Edmonton.

Copyright Alberta Association of Registered Nurses Feb 2003
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