- Nursing Careers -
The Diversity in
Nursing Jobs in Canada

Nursing careers can be diverse and challenging in Canada.

Jobs in nursing can occur in a variety of settings. Additionally 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 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 .)

Because of the multitude of possibilities, 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 clients
• cardiovascular clients
• dementia care clients
• neurology
• gastro-enterology

Even professionals who do not practice at the bedside are still part of the nursing profession.

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

Domains

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 that take place in these various domains are not necessarily formal classifications of jobs in nursing as these are usually determined as part of a labour union agreement. Rather these 4 domains of nursing practice are used to describe the various ways that nurses practice in the nursing profession and are not necessarily tied to salary structure.

by Beverly OMalley

Jump to the explanation of the meaning of job classifications for registered nurse jobs for the purposes of determining wages or steps on the nurse salary payscale.

What is a Nursing Standard? - Professional standards of practice apply in all nursing careers.

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

1. 2007 RN profiles Canadian Institute for Health Information http://www.cna-aiic.ca/CNA/documents/pdf/publications/2007_RN_Profiles_e.pdf accessed Nov 2009