Nursing regulation in Canada: Insights from a scoping review

Canadian nursing regulators have implemented various innovations to reform regulatory approaches to address workforce challenges, system demands, governance reforms, and a drive for efficiency. Given the significant role that regulators play in influencing patient safety, workforce, and health syste...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 20; no. 5; p. e0323716
Main Authors: Chiu, Patrick, Thiessen, Natalie J., Idrees, Sobia, Leslie, Kathleen, Kung, Janice Y.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.05.2025
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Accountability
Canada
Context
Decision making
Dissertations & theses
Humans
Knowledge management
Legislation
Licensing, certification and accreditation
Medical personnel
Medical research
Nurses
Nursing
Nursing - standards
Practice
Professional ethics
Professional misconduct
Professionals
Professions
Provinces
Regulation
Regulatory reform
Territorial legislation
Workforce
Canada
British Columbia Canada
United Kingdom > UK
United States > US
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Canadian nursing regulators have implemented various innovations to reform regulatory approaches to address workforce challenges, system demands, governance reforms, and a drive for efficiency. Given the significant role that regulators play in influencing patient safety, workforce, and health system outcomes, decision-making must be evidence-informed. This review examined the nature, extent, and range of literature related to nursing regulation in Canada and how the existing scholarship aligns with emerging regulatory and health system trends to inform the development of a research agenda. The review was conducted following the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and with the support of a medical research librarian. A total of 195 sources, including scholarly (n = 156, 80%) and grey literature sources (n = 39, 20%), were included and reviewed. Just over half of the included scholarly sources were empirical studies (n = 80, 51.3%). The number of publications has steadily increased over the last few decades, and the majority of sources were situated in a provincial/territorial context (n = 104, 53.3%), followed by the national (n = 67, 34.4%) and global context (n = 24, 12.3%). The majority of the literature was led by scholars or professional groups unaffiliated with nursing regulators (n = 129, 66.2%). In contrast, nursing regulators led, commissioned, or were involved in a smaller portion of sources (n = 66, 33.8%). The largest category of literature focused on regulatory models, governance structures, and reforms (n = 59, 30.3%); followed by registration and licensure (n = 57, 29.2%); nursing roles and standards (n = 53, 27.2%); conduct, complaints, and discipline (n = 13, 6.7%); continuing competence programs (n = 11, 5.7%); and education program approval/accreditation (n = 2, 1%). The current literature base related to nursing regulation in Canada is largely descriptive and non-empirical and may not provide sufficient evidence to inform regulatory decision-making. This highlights opportunities for regulators and researchers to enhance collaboration to co-create research agendas that can maximize knowledge development and mobilization efforts.
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ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0323716