The Nursing Profession in Canada

Nursing laws in every province regulate nursing in the public interest not the interest of the members. In some provinces that law exists for the specific regulation of nursing such as a "Nurses Act" but in other provinces nurses are regulated under a "Health Professions Act" which regulates all health professions and describes the legislated scope of practice and specific restricted acts the members of the various regulated professions may perform.

This legislation specifies conditions of entry, standards of competency that must be maintained, and how the governing body for the nursing profession must be structured.

It is not the government or an outside body that regulates nurses it is nurses who regulate nurses.

While governments set the nursing laws for protection of the public, it is the nurses themselves who are given the authority to carry out this mandate through the professional nursing organizations in each province.

In other words the nursing profession in Canada is self regulating.

Nursing ethics that Canadian nurses must use in their practice are described in the Canadian Nurses Association Ethics Guide.

There can be no question that in a country with a publicly funded health care system that nursing exists for the benefit of the public that uses the health care system.

The vast majority of nurses in Canada work in the public sector but even nurses employed in the private sector must place the benefit of the public they serve above their own interests.

Nursing theory includes knowledge from the social sciences, physical sciences, pharmacology and even math. Nursing theories provide the specific knowledge base for the nursing profession.

Graduates of a nursing education program cannot sit the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam unless they have graduated from a program that has receive the approval or recognition of the regulating body.