- Nursing Careers -
The Diversity in
Nursing Jobs in Canada

Nursing careers can be diverse and challenging in Canada.

Nursing jobs in Canada can occur in a variety of settings. A registered nurse will work with a variety of clients from many diverse cultures, across the lifespan and across all social and economic stratas.

As your nursing career progresses it can be in any of the four domains of nursing practice.

Nurses work in a multitude of settings, and with individuals across the lifespan. Also a registered nurse can work with a wide diversity of clients such as individuals, families, groups, or even communities.(Go to Community Health Nursing.)

Because of the multitude of possibilities in the nursing profession, specialization can occur in any number of ways such as working with specific client populations:

pediatrics
geriatrics
adult nursing
adolescents
forensics

Specialization can also occur within the range of client conditions such as:

psychiatry
surgical nursing
cardiovascular nursing
dementia care
neurology
gastro-enterology

Nursing practice that occurs away from the bedside is still part of the nursing profession. Many nursing careers specialize in administration, education, or research. These are called "domains" or "dimensions" of the nursing profession as the registered nurse working in this type of position is still engaged in nursing practice as it is legally defined and a nursing license is required in order to do the job.

Domains of Nursing

There are four domains of nursing practice. Here is a definition of each of the domains and the statistics for the number of nurses working in each domain.

Nursing Careers in the 4 Domains of Nursing Practice	% of Nursing Jobs in Canada
Direct patient care or general duty A nurse works in this domain of nursing practice when the main responsibility in the job description is using the nursing process to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care that is delivered directly to clients and families. Various levels of supervision of other nurses or health care providers may be involved. Direct care or general nursing positions can occur in a variety of venues and are not restricted to the bedside. The general duty registered nurse could carry out direct care in a hospital, a residential care facility, or in the patient's private home.	84.9%
Administration When the main responsibility in the job description is supervision of other health care providers including other nurses as well as strategic planning for a department or organization.	5.2%
Education When the main responsibility in the job description is assessing learning needs, planning, implementing, and evaluating education programs the nurse is working in the education domain. This domain of the nursing profession is primarily for teaching students not clients. Health teaching delivered to clients and their families would be part of direct care or general duty care.	4.4%
Research When the main responsibility in the job description is designing and implementing research to support nursing practice.	1.1%

Nursing careers that take place in these various domains of nursing are not necessarily job classifications for the purposes of determining wages or steps on the salary payscale.

Rather these domains of nursing practice are used to describe the various ways that nurses practice in the nursing profession.

Nursing Careers Statistics

(2007) Registered nurses database managed by the Canadian Health Institute for Health Information.

Total number of registered nurses in Canada was reported as 257,961
med/surg	43,258
psychiatry	13,255
pediatrics	6,937
maternal/child	14,192
geriatrics	26,044
critical care	18,604
community health nursing	11,251
ambulatory care	7,254
home care	7,316
occupational health nursing	3,20

Go to a discussion of job classifications as determined by labor union collective agreements.

Professional standards of practice apply in all nursing careers.

View the registered nurse salary payscale.

View the description of the advanced nursing practice of the Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Nurse Practitioner in Canada.

Current Nursing Shortage

Some provincial health authorities have decreased the number of nursing positions because of funding shortfalls. These are some of the political nuances of nursing in Canada.

The various career sections on health authority websites still show a wide variety of positions, but many of them are not entry level.

This is most likely a temporary situation and all predictions still forcast a nursing shortage for the future.

I will be monitoring this situation over the longer term.

A Canadian visitor says:

Bev:

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Stephanie

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